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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 does the dinosaur do in the dream Fern-flower first tells Qfwfq about?

2. How much does the narrator plan the details of his shell's appearance?

3. What does the narrator anticipate with relief at the end of "The Light-Years"?

4. What sign does the narrator see, when he looks up in anticipation of a reaction to the second event, of which he is proud?

5. Who gives Qfwfq and Dean (k)yK the libraries, magazines, and computers they need for their calculations?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Which bets does Qfwfq find most satisfying?

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

4. How does the narrator see evolution as confining?

5. Describe N'ba N'ga's objections to living on land.

6. What gives Qfwfq an advantage over Dean (k)yK when they bet during the early evolution of the universe?

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

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

9. What does N'ba N'ga like about the water where he lives?

10. Describe Lieutenant Fenimore.

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

In COSMICOMICS, objects and things outside the self often reflect the self to the outside world. Discuss the role of objects and belongings in COSMICOMICS, and their relationship to identity and self.

1) What is the role of the characters' outer appearance in reflecting their inner selves? How do Ursula H'x and Lieutenant Fenimore's appearances reflect their personalities? How does the mollusk's shell become an embodiment of the mollusk's self?

2) How do objects the characters create and acquire reflect themselves? How does the sign in space become a representation of Qfwfq? How do the hydrogen atoms and the galaxies the boys form in "Games Without End" become representations of the boys, and part of their comparisons with each other?

Essay Topic 3

Many of the stories in COSMICOMICS revolve around love. Discuss love in Calvino's stories.

1) Who are the women that the central characters fall in love with? What attracts the central characters to women in the stories?

2) What do women love in the stories? How do the women interact with the men who love them, and with the ones they love?

3) Why are there no happy endings to the love stories in Calvino's collection? What ways does love end? What does this say about Calvino's attitude toward love?

(see the answer keys)

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