View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. A museum in which of the following cities buys one of Jamie’s paintings?

2. At what age does Cochrane become pregnant?

3. The novel glosses the world “polynya” as which of the following?

4. What craft first photographs the curvature of the earth?

5. In what year does Cochrane break the sound barrier?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Jamie give up searching for his father in Seattle?

2. What reasons are offered for Alaskans’ acceptance of Marian after years of her masquerade under another identity?

3. What response does Marian give to Ruth’s question about why people in Britain do not cry?

4. What difference does Hugo note between playing a person and playing a fictional character?

5. What fears does Jamie note harboring with regard to the Faheys?

6. Hadley watches a documentary about one of Adelaide’s artistic projects; describe the project briefly.

7. What mercy does Marian perceive in her assumption that her love for Ruth cannot be reciprocated?

8. What does Redwood note as being his preferred word, and why?

9. How does Eddie describe his usual view from the navigator’s desk?

10. What insight into fear does Hadley report having from playing Marian?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The two focal characters, Marian and Hadley, are made parallel in several ways, including by being orphans. How might the novel have been different had their parallelism been developed in other ways? For one such other way, what would the effects be, and why would they be those effects?

Essay Topic 2

Notably, Wallace is a painter—and Jaime becomes one later. How might the story be different were Wallace and Jaime in a different line of work or artists in another medium? Why might it be different in those ways?

Essay Topic 3

In “The Cosmic Whoosh of the Expanding Universe,” Hadley comments on the mismatches between Marian’s logbook and the novelization thereof. Hadley’s own project is a reinterpretation of the novelization. What attitude toward adaptation does the novel display, and how does it display as much?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 650 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample