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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 sound is interjected throughout Homeoptotes?

2. What is the point of view of Present?

3. What word replaces all personal nouns and pronouns in Polyptotes?

4. How many variations of the basic story were created by 1942?

5. How is the hat described in Retrograde?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author make the variation "Insistence" seem insistent to the reader?

2. Why do you think the variation "Noble" is titled "Noble?"

3. Explain the variation "Cross Examination."

4. Explain some of the differences between "Official Letter" and "Blurb."

5. What does Wright say is the point of Exercises in Style?

6. Explain how Exercises in Style evolved into what it is in the book. Does the author have any future plans for Exercises in Style?

7. How are readers able to understand the invented words in the variation "Word Composition?"

8. Explain the style used in the variation "Prognostication."

9. What is an Alexandrine sonnet, and what are the rhyme scheme and meter used in "Alexandrines?"

10. What are the three reactions Barbara Wright received when she told people she was translating a book by Raymond Queneau?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which of the variations is the most straightforward? Why? Use examples from the variations to support your claims.

Essay Topic 2

Though some of the variations were not translated into English, most of the original variations were able to be translated effectively from French. What does this say about the flexibility of language as it relates to Exercises in Style?

Essay Topic 3

Is Raymond Queneau effective in conveying a sense of pointlessness in Exercises in Style? Why or why not?

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