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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. How does Qfwfq feel about N'ba N'ga?

2. Who does Ursula H'x always look at as she falls?

3. What does the first sign the narrator sees say?

4. Who does the mollusk expect to develop sight but doesn't?

5. What does Qfwfq predict will happen to stars?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What is the attitude of the New Ones to the Dinosaurs, when Qfwfq first encounters the New Ones after his period of isolation?

4. What second enormous hand sign does the narrator make, and why?

5. How does Zahn first react to Qfwfq?

6. How does Qfwfq describe Dean (k)yK, on a typical day in the present?

7. What does the narrator think the first sign he sees is referring to?

8. Why does the narrator get an enormous sign of a hand with a pointing finger?

9. Describe Lieutenant Fenimore.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Because the stories in COSMICOMICS discuss the natural world examined by science, they address mankind's relationship to the natural world. Discuss the relationship between man and the natural world in COSMICOMICS.

1) What is the relationship between the world of mankind and the natural world of the mollusk in "The Spiral"?

2) How is mankind related to the evolution of the universe? How does life on Earth contrast with the natural world before life developed?

3) How do natural forces like evolution and changes in the universe affect characters in the stories?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout COSMICOMICS, characters generate ideas for the first time and do or conceive of things before the things themselves, or integral parts of those things, exist. Discuss these prototypes in COSMICOMICS.

1) How does Qfwfq think about the first sign? What is the significance of the sign being the "first"? How does this prototype differ from later signs?

2) How does the society in the point in "All at One Point" function as a prototype of later societies that will exist in the expanded universe?

3) How do the characters in "How Much Shall We Bet?" create a prototype of betting? How does betting change as the universe develops?

4) Why are there so many prototypes throughout COSMICOMICS? How are they related to each other and to the themes of the story collection?

Essay Topic 3

The stories in COSMICOMICS take place at different points of the universe, where distance and space play an important role. Discuss space and distance in COSMICOMICS.

1) What role does space and distance play in "All at One Point"? How does the confinement of a single point of space compare to the expanded universe and affect characters' perceptions and behaviors?

2) What role does space and distance play in "The Distance of the Moon" and "The Form of Space"? How does distance relate to love and attraction?

3) What role does space and distance play in "Games Without End?" What does the ending of the story say about space and distance?

(see the answer keys)

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