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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 is the name of Ludmilla's sister?

2. What is combined with description in "Without Fear of Wind or Vertigo"?

3. What does the bookseller warn the reader about the next book he's given?

4. According to Marana, what is the only thing that dictates which novels survive?

5. Who turns out to be the contact the man is waiting for in If On a Winter's Night a Traveler?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the reader's comments on the difference between reading and hearing somebody read aloud.

2. For what does the reader continue to search after finding a problem with his second book?

3. Why was "Without Fear of Wind or Vertigo" chastised?

4. What foreshadows a future problem in Chapter 2?

5. In Chapter 5, what new type of book does Ludmilla claim to enjoy?

6. Describe the reader's interaction with the "other reader."

7. How does Calvino bring interactivity to the book?

8. Describe the narrator of "Leaning from the Steep Slope."

9. Why is the book titled If On a Winter's Night a Traveler in the story so vague?

10. How is confusion a theme in the novel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the setting in the novel. Why is setting significant to the novel? How would the novel change if it had a different setting? Cite one piece of evidence from the novel.

Essay Topic 2

What role does the second-person perspective play in the novel? How does the use of second-person perspective have an impact on the reader? What is the author able to do with the second perspective that he would not be able to do otherwise?

Essay Topic 3

What are the benefits to this book being interactive for the reader? How does the author make it interactive? Is the author effective or ineffective in making the book interactive?

(see the answer keys)

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