View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The narrator says that she prefers to be more like a gardener than like a what when it comes to her own narrative?
(a) Phlebotomist.
(b) Mistress.
(c) Fortune teller.
(d) Doctor.

2. The woman with the red suitcase stops in what location on her way home from visiting her ex-lover?
(a) Paris.
(b) New Zealand.
(c) Chicago.
(d) Amsterdam.

3. In the vignette entitled "Purity of Blood," the narrator meets a woman who hails from what type of location?
(a) A desert.
(b) A peninsula.
(c) A forest.
(d) An island.

4. The narrator notes that the airport in which city is shaped like a hieroglyphic?
(a) Frankfurt.
(b) San Francisco.
(c) Tokyo.
(d) Denver.

5. What kind of ruler buys Ruysch's collection of biological specimens?
(a) The shah.
(b) The tsar.
(c) The sultan.
(d) The king.

Short Answer Questions

1. The image of a hand on a postcard causes the narrator to fixate on what objects as she moves about the world?

2. In the vignette entitled "Flights," the narrator states that "everything is" (227) what in hell?

3. The vignette entitled "30,000 Guilders" takes place in what century?

4. The narrator uses what location to demonstrate the vast feelings of being present experienced by the passengers flying from Irkutsk to Moscow?

5. In which direction does the narrator's plane fly in the vignette entitled "Irkutsk-Moscow" (225)?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

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

4. What object does Tokarczuk use in a metaphor characterizing the nocturnal brain and why?

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

6. Discuss how the motif of dreams appears within the unnamed narrator's vignettes.

7. How does the theme of obsession arise within the story about Verheyen?

8. How is the theme of oppression featured within the vignettes about James Cook?

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

10. In what way does the theme of compassion arise within Annushka's story?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,042 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample