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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What do the people of Zenobia imagine when asked to describe a happy life?
(a) A city like their own.
(b) A good spouse and many children.
(c) Enough food on the table.
(d) A place where they are free to follow their interests.

3. What city is found 80 miles northwest of Zenobia?
(a) Euphemia.
(b) Eureka.
(c) Euphrates.
(d) Eugenia.

4. Khan tells Polo about his dreams of a city where the farewells from its harbor are what?
(a) Indifferent.
(b) Insincere.
(c) Joyous and celebratory.
(d) Tearful but silent.

5. When Khan asks if he will finally be able to fully possess his empire after learning the meaning of all of Polo's symbols, the traveler replies that Khan:
(a) Will be able to teach the symbols to his many children.
(b) Will be esteemed by every man, woman, and child in the empire.
(c) Will then be an emblem among the emblems.
(d) Will reach a state of great enlightenment.

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

7. Which city is described as a place where traitors are strung from lampposts and old men sit on docks, telling stories while mending fishing nets?
(a) Zirma.
(b) Anastasia.
(c) Isidora.
(d) Zaira.

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

9. When Polo first communicates with Khan, the emperor is able to:
(a) Understand everything completely.
(b) Look interested despite being bored.
(c) Comprehend his unusual accent.
(d) Decipher his signs.

10. Why does Polo initially rely on symbols to represent people and places?
(a) He wants to make it more challenging for Khan.
(b) He cannot speak Khan's language.
(c) He's eccentric and mischievous.
(d) He's too shy to speak directly to the emperor.

11. In Hypatia, when Polo wants to see the sultan at the palace, who is he allowed to question instead?
(a) The second in command.
(b) Philosophers.
(c) The sultan's shoemaker.
(d) Servants.

12. Polo wants to inform the emperor how much darkness is out there by focusing on:
(a) Small glimmers of light.
(b) The debauchery of each region.
(c) Remnants of past glory.
(d) Traitors and those who speak poison.

13. When Marco Polo first tells his tales to Kublai Khan, he uses:
(a) Large words to impress Khan.
(b) Gestures and pantomimes.
(c) An interpreter.
(d) A language Khan developed.

14. Polo tells Khan that he feels this way about the things he saw in Hypatia:
(a) Entranced.
(b) Frightened.
(c) Uplifted.
(d) Cheated.

15. What creates connections between lives in Chloe?
(a) Something about their glances.
(b) The way everyone lives in close, tight-knit communities.
(c) The city's 103-year-old patriarch.
(d) The fact that everyone is related to everyone else in some way.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is the city of perceptions and symbols, where items are valuable because of what they represent, not what they really are?

2. In the city with the large metal building in its center, what's inside each room of the building?

3. By dissecting each city, what is Polo is trying to explain to Khan?

4. The people of Valdrada know their actions are repeated:

5. Khan's messengers advise him on the price of:

(see the answer keys)

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