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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 think when she sees a photo of Adriaan's wife for the first time?

2. What is Kees's relationship with Adriaan's wife?

3. What does Jana compliment Adriaan on that seems ridiculous to the narrator?

4. In Chapter 2, what part of the city does the narrator live in?

5. In Chapter 2, what does Jana call the narrator to ask?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the main business in The Hague?

2. What does translation and interpretation require, according to the narrator?

3. What does Bettina ask the narrator to do in Chapter 5?

4. Why does Kees make the narrator uncomfortable in Chapter 3?

5. Why does Adriaan ask the narrator not to move to Jana's neighborhood?

6. What do many of the defendants at the International Criminal Court share, according to the narrator?

7. What does Adriaan offer to do for his first meeting with Jana and the narrator?

8. According to the narrator, what does one hear the longer she listens to any one interpreter speaking?

9. What does the narrator think of Jana's new neighborhood?

10. What happens when the narrator goes to dinner at Jana's in Chapter 1 that jolts them both?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the narrator react to the young woman who acts as a witness to the former president's crimes? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

Why does the narrator find herself drawn to the dunes at the coast of The Hague in the later parts of the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

How does the narrator's conversation with her mother from the dunes at the end of the novel seem to affect the narrator's sense of place, purpose, and memory? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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