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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. How many IM norms must Ivan complete to achieve the title?

2. Which of the following courses does Peter teach?

3. Which of Margaret’s friends learned to recognize her estranged husband’s phone number?

4. Which artist’s work does Peter see in Florence?

5. What color beach towel does Margaret use?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Peter not return to his apartment after his upset with Sylvia?

2. Why is Margaret sympathetic towards her imagined version of Peter?

3. Why is Margaret satisfied with the performance of the Goldberg Variations at her workplace?

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

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

6. What holiday plans does Christine try to get Peter and Ivan to attend?

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

8. What contest does Peter perceive himself engaging in with Christine?

9. Why is Ivan insulted by Margaret’s opinion that she is taking advantage of him?

10. How does Anna’s mother contrast with Margaret’s?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the ending of the novel. Does it satisfy? How or how not?

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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