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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 Dean (k)yK react when Qfwfq loses a bet?

2. What does one of the spectators at the fight between Zahn and Qfwfq call out?

3. How far away is the galaxy where the narrator sees the sign?

4. What does the mollusk think of the development of eyesight?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How does Zahn first react to Qfwfq?

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

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

6. Describe Lieutenant Fenimore.

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

8. In what way, according to the narrator's description, does the existence of a shell bring about eyes and the ability to see?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Calvino's stories often center around signs and symbols. Discuss the role of signs and symbols in COSMICOMICS.

1) Discuss signs in "A Sign in Space." What is Qfwfq's first sign meant to represent? How does its meaning and function change over the course of the story? What does the story say about the nature of signs?

2) Discuss signs in "The Light-Years." How do the signs in "The Light-Years" compare to those in "A Sign in Space"? What is the function of signs? What problems do signs present?

3) What signs and symbols appear in other stories? How do the characters use signs and symbols and interpret them?

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)

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