View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What tangible items do merchants trade in Euphemia?
(a) Poppy seeds, grain, and nutmeg.
(b) Gunpowder and fireworks.
(c) Curry powder and white and green tea.
(d) Silk fabrics as well as silk worms.

2. What does Polo see rising vertically in Armilla?
(a) Pipes where the houses should be.
(b) Columns that hold nothing up.
(c) Stacks of seashells.
(d) Tall, slender windmills.

3. When he is quiet, what does Polo sometimes imagine?
(a) Answering the emperor's questions.
(b) Being in the emperor's shoes.
(c) Being in a far off land.
(d) What life would be like had he not met the emperor.

4. Which city is a gray stone metropolis with a large metal building in the center?
(a) Prada.
(b) Isadora.
(c) Lenora.
(d) Fedora.

5. When the emperor and the traveler grow quiet in order to reflect on what was just said, the emperor sometimes:
(a) Stares at Polo piercingly.
(b) Imagines Polo answering his questions.
(c) Clears his throat loudly.
(d) Weeps quietly.

6. Of what use are Polo's tales to the emperor?
(a) To serve as nothing more than entertainment.
(b) To keep him calm and stable in light of financial troubles.
(c) To help him connect to distant places he will never see.
(d) To keep him from getting depressed.

7. Which of these is not a city described by Polo in Chapter 2?
(a) Kublai.
(b) Euphemia.
(c) Zenobia.
(d) Maurilia.

8. According to Polo, what is found in half of Sophronia?
(a) A fair with a roller coaster, carousel, and ferris wheel.
(b) An observatory with a large telescope and wise astrologers.
(c) Markets selling the riches of the world.
(d) Tent cities with the poorest of the poor.

9. The people of Valdrada know their actions are repeated:
(a) By their descendents.
(b) In a parallel dimension.
(c) By actors performing in monthly plays.
(d) In the mirror image of the lake.

10. What confuses Polo about Armilla?
(a) He doesn't know whether it's unfinished or has been demolished.
(b) He can't tell if the people are welcoming him or waiting for him to leave.
(c) Where its source of water is located.
(d) Why everyone living here is so young.

11. Who tells Polo in Hypatia that, "signs form a language, but not the one you know."
(a) The sultan.
(b) One of the servants.
(c) One of the philosphers.
(d) The sultan's eldest son.

12. Polo describes a city with two forms of religion. In one, the gods live in a subterranean lake. In the other, the gods live where?
(a) The blades of windmills.
(b) The top of the volcanic mountain.
(c) Clouds that bring rain.
(d) Statues and monuments.

13. Polo offers two vantage points of Zemrude; one includes:
(a) Flapping curtains, fountains, and windowsills.
(b) Windmills and bright flowers.
(c) Walls with gaping holes.
(d) Busy markets and bustling streets.

14. What does Polo explain that Zemrude's form is based on?
(a) The traveler's mood.
(b) The dream of the dreamer.
(c) The hope of its people.
(d) The orientation of the sky.

15. What is Eutropia composed of?
(a) Three cities separated from each other by a lake.
(b) A number of equally sized cities.
(c) Island cities within a vast lake.
(d) One large city surrounding a smaller city.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is the city of a thousand wells, sitting above an underground lake?

2. If a traveler walks into Zemrude with his head held high, how does he see the city?

3. When Polo first communicates with Khan, the emperor is able to:

4. Why does Polo initially rely on symbols to represent people and places?

5. Polo says that Zaira is defined by:

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 639 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample