View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is a dinosaur body uncovered?

2. What is N'ba N'ga's relationship to Qfwfq?

3. How does Lieutenant Fenimore react when the narrator indicates he's seen a universe?

4. What gives the narrator the idea that space has a shape and form?

5. What name do the New Ones give to Qfwfq?

Short Essay Questions

1. In the end of the mollusk's story, in what way does he encounter the female mollusk?

2. How do the New Ones' perception of dinosaurs change over the time Qfwfq is with them?

3. Describe the problems with the advice N'ba N'ga gives his family.

4. Why does the narrator not want to show his desire to meet Ursula at the beginning of the story "The Form of Space"?

5. What does Qfwfq do with the body of the dinosaur the New Ones find?

6. How does the narrator describe being with Ursula H'x when their routes intersect?

7. When does the narrator suppose that he might finally meet Ursula, and what does he fear about that potential meeting?

8. What causes the narrator's suspicions about the female he encounters?

9. What happens to the initial wealth that Qfwfq builds up?

10. How does the narrator see evolution as confining?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of the stories in COSMICOMICS deal with change and stasis, and the characters' reactions to changes in their world. Discuss change and stasis in COSMICOMICS.

1) Which of the stories in COSMICOMICS are set at moments of change in the development of the universe? How do the characters respond to change?

2) Are there patterns to how different types of characters respond to change in COSMICOMICS? How do women respond differently than men? How do older people respond differently to younger people?

3) What is the role of stasis in COSMICOMICS? In what way are the end of "Games without End" and the parallel falls in "The Form of Space" representations of stasis, in contrast to change represented in other stories?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,008 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample