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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Annushka wishes for someone to witness her pain, she visits what location?
(a) A waterfall.
(b) A bank.
(c) A church.
(d) A plateau.

2. What part of the fictional Philip Verheyen's own body does he dissect over the course of several years?
(a) His arm.
(b) His foot.
(c) His ear.
(d) His leg.

3. At what time of day do the homes of one country's citizens become small stages, according to the narrator?
(a) At dusk.
(b) At dawn.
(c) At noon.
(d) At midnight.

4. The narrator says that the airport in which city is shaped like a spine?
(a) Los Angeles.
(b) Tokyo.
(c) San Francisco.
(d) Frankfurt.

5. The vignette entitled "The Achilles Tendon" opens in what year?
(a) 1692.
(b) 1892.
(c) 1442.
(d) 1542.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who notices during their visits that Verheyen is becoming increasingly obsessed with his amputated body part?

2. The narrator notes that the airport in which city is shaped like a hieroglyphic?

3. The narrator tells the reader that what location is a good place to practice her favorite skill?

4. In Josefine Soliman's final letter to Francis I, she accuses him of what transgression?

5. In the vignette entitled "Purity of Blood," the narrator meets a woman who hails from what type of location?

Short Essay Questions

1. What elements does the unnamed narrator consider when deciding whether a story or a lecture is more appropriate for the story she has to tell?

2. Who is Annushka?

3. In what way does the unnamed narrator show an affinity for secrecy?

4. How is the loss of purity theme depicted within the narrator's conversation about giving blood?

5. In what way does Tokarczuk use dialogue in order to highlight a lack of sensitivity in tourists?

6. How does Tokarczuk use postcards as a symbol?

7. Discuss the unnamed narrator's feelings about languages and secrecy.

8. What had the woman in rags been mumbling to Annushka when Annushka became frightened?

9. How do Existentialist ideals creep into Verheyen's later writings?

10. What significance does the unnamed narrator find in the shapes of airports?

(see the answer keys)

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