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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 weapon does Lieutenant Fenimore use against the narrator?

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

3. How does Dean (k)yK try to back out of the bet that there will be atoms?

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

5. Which of the following impossible fantasies does the narrator have in his shapeless form?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. How does Zahn first react to Qfwfq?

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

6. How does Lll react when she first meets N'ba N'ga?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 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

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?

(see the answer keys)

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