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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 is the first means of recognition in Flatland?

2. What does A. Square blame for the inhabitants' inability to discern North in the normal way?

3. What classes are able to use this method?

4. What shape are nobility members?

5. Under what name was Flatland originally published?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to aristocratic children who fail exams, and as a result, what does the State feel should happen?

2. What caused women to turn against the color bill?

3. What are the three rules created for women, in order to protect society? What are the rules in the strictest society?

4. What were the events surrounding the spread of desire to color Flatland, and how long did almost complete colorization take?

5. What tools do inhabitants use to discern direction in Flatland?

6. Discuss at least two ways the inhabitants of Flatland attempt to alter natural evolution.

7. What is the author's primary defense against the idea that those in Flatland should recognize thickness, and infer a dimension?

8. Explain the basic process of evolution, as described in Chapter 3.

9. In Chapter 1, what does A. Square compare sight in Flatland to in the three dimensional world, Spaceland, and what is the comparison?

10. What occurs in society as a result of the Color Revolt?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 7, A. Square explains what happens to individuals who are shaped irregularly. Discuss the consequences of irregularity in Flatland. Does our society have similar punishments for those who deviate from the norm? Explain your answer by discussing a particular group of individuals who deviate from the norm, and how they are treated by society. Do you believe such treatment is just, or wrong? Why?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 4, Abbott discusses the role of women in Flatland. He clearly uses the women in the novel to symbolize how women are treated in Victorian society. Discuss how Abbott portrays women in the novel, and compare it to both women in historic times, as well as in modern times. Has the treatment of women improved? If so, is the change universal? If not, what types of viewpoints have not changed? Do you feel such treatment is valid, or unjust? Why?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 9, Abbott discusses the role of women in the near-passage of the Universal Color Bill. Discuss why women wanted the bill to pass, and why they would stand to benefit. Think of an event in history that women helped to shape, and compare the gains of the women in Flatland to the women in your example. Do the women stand to gain in the same ways? Do they differ? How?

(see the answer keys)

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