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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 event makes the beasts all stop what they are doing and move simultaneously in one direction in Chapter 2?

2. Where does the narrator fall asleep at the end of Chapter 14?

3. How does the Professor explain the narrator's memory of the dam and the king's coronation?

4. What happens to the dead beasts?

5. Which landmark does the narrator describe in detail at the beginning of Chapter 4?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe where the narrator's shadow lives.

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

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

4. Describe the procedure the narrator goes through to prepare for shuffling.

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

6. Describe the Collection Room.

7. Describe the process for reading dreams.

8. Give a brief description of the beasts introduced in Chapter 2.

9. Briefly describe the memory the narrator has while climbing the underground tower with the chubby girl.

10. Explain where the narrator is at the beginning of Chapter 1 and what he spends his time doing.

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

Using the death of the beasts, the death of shadows and the prospect of the Tokyo narrator's own death as examples, explain how Murakami presents the theme of mortality in the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Explain what the Townspeople, the shadow and the Professor say about the beasts and use these varying viewpoints to explain the role unicorns play in the novel as a whole.

(see the answer keys)

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