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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 have those who live in the world of the "9 June 1905" dream determined is the only way to live?

2. What does the middle-aged man receive during the "2 June 1905" dream?

3. What is Einstein eating in the second Interlude?

4. According to the "29 May 1905" dream, why does this world exist as it does?

5. In the "15 June 1905" dream, what is the young woman staring at?

Short Essay Questions

1. What has the young woman at no. 27 Viktoriastrasse missed in her life because of the sudden thrust into the future?

2. What is the young woman at no. 27 Viktoriastrasse doing right before she thrusts herself into the future?

3. Describe what happens between the baker and the woman in the 17 June 1905 dream.

4. What options do people have when it comes to reading their Book of Life?

5. How does the narrator describe time in the 17 June 1905 dream?

6. How did the notion of the speed effect come to be known?

7. How does the narrator describe a world without a future?

8. How does the narrator describe the phenomenon of people only living one day in the 3 June 1905 dream?

9. Describe the way that time is experienced in the 5 June 1905 dream.

10. What happens to the "withered woman" from the 2 June 1905 dream?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the fact that the novel takes place over two hours of "real time." What is the importance of this fact? Given that the novel describes many different aspects of time, how does the novel support the multiple theories or does it actually play against the theme of time? Cite specific examples from the text to support your responses.

Essay Topic 2

Salman Rushdie states that the novel is "intellectually provocative and touching and comical and so very beautifully written." (Dust cover quote-1993 edition by Pantheon Books, New York) What, from this quote, do you agree with? What do you disagree with? Based on your stand as a reader, support your belief with textual evidence. Cite specific examples from the text to support your responses.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the relationship between Einstein and Besso. Who do you think the relationship is more important to? Why? Who do you think the relationship is more taxing on? Why? Is the relationship relevant to the understanding of the novel? Cite specific examples from the text to support your responses.

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