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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. At what age did Ivan reach FM?

2. Which of the following does Peter drink at a birthday celebration?

3. What color swimsuit does Margaret have?

4. What snooker player does Naomi favor?

5. Which actor do Peter and Sylvia watch while she convalesces?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Ivan react to his friend’s promotion to International Master?

2. How does Ivan work to restore his late father’s house for his own use?

3. How does Peter imagine Sylvia views Naomi after he has secured her release from jail?

4. What had been Margaret’s hope in leaving her husband?

5. What, ultimately, does Peter want from his professional life?

6. Why does Peter think he had it harder with Christine and her stepchildren than Ivan did?

7. Whom does Margaret posit Anna thinks her romantic entanglement is?

8. Why does Ivan posit Margaret might not want to be kissed on the beach?

9. How does Ivan fantasize about greeting Margaret at a chess tournament?

10. What does Ivan recall that Peter and Sylvia had done for him in Christmases past?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Given the focus of the novel, which character would be what chess piece? What in the novel accounts for that selection? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Readers accustomed to U.S. orthographic standards will find some issues of difficulty with the presentation of the text of Intermezzo. What comes across as most difficult? What effect does that difficulty create? Why might that effect be a desirable outcome for a novel?

Essay Topic 3

The novel betrays particular attitudes about what work is. What are those attitudes, and how do they manifest in the novel?

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