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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What causes the sea creatures to go up into the air?

2. How are the winner and loser determined in the game Qfwfq and Pfwfp play?

3. Does Qfwfq ever see any of the people from the point before the Big Bang anymore?

4. When matter starts to condense, who does the family have to pull out of the newly formed matter?

5. As time passes, how does Qfwfq come to see his second sign?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the Deaf One act while the moon is further away from the Earth?

2. How is the food that the characters collect from the moon made?

3. What does Qfwfq try to communicate with Ayl when they first meet?

4. What skills does the Deaf One have that make it easiest for him to climb up to the moon?

5. Why does Qfwfq fear making a third true sign?

6. How does Qfwfq try to help Mrs. Vhd Vhd get back down to Earth, after the moon begins behaving strangely?

7. Describe what Qfwfq thinks as he nears the end of the first galactic revolution and believes he's about to see his sign again.

8. Describe the visualization that all the people in the point have of Mrs. Ph(i)nK_0 that leads to the Big Bang.

9. How does Qfwfq react after he sees that his sign is obliterated?

10. What argument does Qfwfq give that the Z'zus could not be properly described as immigrants?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

COSMICOMICS deals with the divisions that exist between the self and others, and the relationship of one's inner self to the society of others outside one's self. Discuss the dichotomy between self and others in COSMICOMICS.

1) How are the characters in "All at One Point" separate from each other and yet unified? What role does the separation between self and others have in quibbling and pettiness? What role does the unification of separate individuals play in the expansion of the point at the end of the story?

2) In "Games without End," how is Pfwfp a reflection of Qfwfq? In what other stories are "others" a reflection of the narrator's self, and to what extent?

3) How are relatives, who share history and genetic makeup, a part of the characters in the story and in some ways an extension of the self?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the portrayal of women in CosmicomicsCOSMICOMICS.

1) Compare Ayl, Lll, and Qfwfq's sister G'd(w)^n. How are these characters similar? Are their similarities related to their gender? Are their other female characters who share similarities? Are there female characters who contrast to these three women?

2) What attracts Qfwfq or the unnamed narrator to female love interests? What is the source of love? How does Qfwfq and the unnamed narrator perceive women?

3) Discuss Mrs. Ph(i)NK_0. How does she represent women? How is she treated differently from the other characters in "All at One Point"? How does she compare with representations of women in other stories?

Essay Topic 3

Calvino's stories deal with communication between an individual and the world around him. Discuss communication in Calvino's stories.

1) In "The Light Years," how does the narrator communicate with others? What problems are there in communication?

2) In "The Form of Space," how does the narrator communicate with the other characters? What role does communication play in the story?

3) How well do the characters in COSMICOMICS communicate with the ones they love? How well, and in what way, do the characters communicate with their rivals?

4) In "A Sign in Space," how does Qfwfq communicate through his sign? What meaning and communication does Qfwfq receive from other signs? What is the role of communication in the story?

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