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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 is the altercation described in Negativities?

2. How does the narrator describe the man's hat in Speaking Personally?

3. According to the Preface, what is Raymond Queaneau a member of?

4. What is one substitution made in the book from the original?

5. What is different about the appearance of Official Letter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do you learn about the narrator of "Ignorance" from reading the variation?

2. Compare and contrast "Apheresis" and "Apocope."

3. Why are the details in the variation "Dream" vague?

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

5. Explain the variation titled "Notation."

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. How is the story manipulated in "Double Entry?"

9. In the Preface, what does Queneau say is his purpose in writing Exercises in Style? What did Queneau say the finished product acts as?

10. Why is the first variation in Section 3 called "Surprises?"

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the variation "Unexpected" fit into the theme of pointlessness in Exercises in Style?

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

What was Barbara Wright's role in Exercises in Style? What changes did she make to Queneau's exercises? Why did she make these changes?

(see the answer keys)

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