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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 does the narrator say he uses his car for in Chapter 7?

2. What kind of tree did the girl see outside her window while in the hospital?

3. What group does the narrator belong to in Chapter 3?

4. How does the narrator get home from the old man's office at the beginning of Chapter 7?

5. What does the Gatekeeper say about the narrator's questions?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the Colonel tell the narrator about the beasts' death in Chapter 20?

2. Explain how the relationship between the narrator and the young woman develops in Chapter 5.

3. How does the narrator imagine his retirement in Chapter 13?

4. What is the source of the noise that dominates the first half of Chapter 23?

5. Describe where the narrator's shadow lives.

6. Why does the Professor say in Chapter 25 that he gave the narrator the data to shuffle with the terminal program?

7. Describe the Colonel and his relationship to the narrator.

8. What does the Gatekeeper have to say about the fact that the narrator got lost in the Woods and fell ill?

9. Why does the chubby girl think her grandfather's lab hasn't been broken into in Chapter 21?

10. What does the narrator's conversation with the Librarian about where he came from tell the reader about the nature of the Town?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the author's attention to the physical needs of the characters in each storyline and explain how Murakami's depictions add to the overall effect of the story.

Essay Topic 2

Describe the Tokyo narrator's escapist tendencies, giving several concrete examples.

Essay Topic 3

Explain some of the main characteristics of existentialist literature and describe how Murakami's novel is similar.

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