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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 do Ayl and her friends play ball with?

2. What does Qfwfq compare Ayl's hair to?

3. What does Qfwfq see that makes him postulate the existence of Kgwgk?

4. Does the sign move?

5. How does Qfwfq feel about his grandmother's cushion?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ayl do when she comes from her hiding place with Qfwfq and sees the colors?

2. Why does Qfwfq say that the sign is more important than its function of marking a place?

3. Why does Qfwfq say he could not make an accurate guess as to how many beings their were at the point before the Big Bang?

4. How is the sign like a name?

5. What are Ayl and Qfwfq's attitudes toward difference and sameness?

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

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

8. What traps Ayl at the end of the story?

9. When Qfwfq finally sees Ayl again, after the meteor flying overhead, how does he lure her away from her friends?

10. What happens to the aunts and uncles when they leave?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Each story in COSMICOMICS is based on a snippet of information about science. Discuss the role of science in Calvino's stories.

1) How does the author choose the science information to base the stories on? Why are some of the science ideas and theories ones that have been disproved?

2) What role does science play in the stories themselves? Why does Calvino make his stories fantastical, and what relationship does the fantastical have to science?

3) What is Calvino's attitude toward science in COSMICOMICS?

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

Throughout COSMICOMICS, Qfwfq and the unnamed narrator have rivalries with other characters. Discuss rivalry in COSMICOMICS.

1) The narrator has rivalries for love in "The Form of Space," "The Aquatic Uncle," and "The Distance of the Moon." How does love relate to rivalry? What causes the rivalries in these stories, and how are rivalries based on competing love unique?

2) The narrator has rivalries based on competition in "A Sign in Space," "Games without End," and "How Much Shall We Bet?" How does competition relate to rivalry? What causes the rivalries in these stories? How is competition resolved?

3) How are rivalries perpetuated in Calvino's stories?

(see the answer keys)

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