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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. Why does Einstein want to understand time?

2. What is time compared to in the "16 April 1905" dream?

3. If a person holds no ambitions in the world described in the "4 May 1905" dream, what happens to him?

4. What happens to time in the "14 May 1905" dream?

5. What month does the Swiss and English couple meet to vacation together?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens one minute before the end of the world?

2. Describe Einstein's appearance at the patent office.

3. What are the benefits of living in a world in which cause and effect are erratic?

4. What are the benefits of a world in which time is absolute?

5. Why do people in the 26 April 1905 dream choose to live in the mountains?

6. What happens one month before the world ends?

7. What happens every day for the townspeople of Berne? (28 April 1905)

8. Describe the people who live by "mechanical time."

9. What happens to travelers as they enter the world described in the 14 May 1905 dream?

10. How does Einstein's desk differ from the others in the patent office?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Regard the novel as a whole. What did you find meaningful or meaningless? What gave you the most to think about and why? Did any part of the novel cause you to look at life and time and redefine the actions of your own life? What parts of the novel caused this re-defining of your own life? Why? Cite specific examples from the text to support your responses.

Essay Topic 2

On the back of the novel, James Gleick is quoted for the novel saying, "No novelist, physicist, or philosopher has offered such a wonderful vision of what time has been or might be." What implication does this set up for the understanding of Einstein himself? What problems may this quote have for the author's intent of writing the novel? Why might Gleick's statement be misunderstood as negative towards Einstein and, therefore, the author himself? Cite specific examples from the text to support your responses.

Essay Topic 3

Choose a representation of time from the novel and examine why it is not a realistic representation of time. Cite specific examples from the text to support your responses as to why this "world" is the most unrealistic from the novel.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 956 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample