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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Sensei’s wife send home with the narrator after he stays with her to watch for burglars in Part I: Sensei and I?
(a) Tea cakes.
(b) Goji cakes.
(c) Coffee cakes.
(d) Fish cakes.

2. The narrator says in Part I: Sensei and I, “At first, I thought of Sensei’s wife as a woman of” what?
(a) “Politics.”
(b) “Understanding.”
(c) “Sophistication.”
(d) “Culture.”

3. Sensei asks the narrator while walking through the cemetery in Part I: Sensei and I, “You have never thought seriously of the reality of” what?
(a) “Death.”
(b) “Life.”
(c) “Marriage.”
(d) “Having children.”

4. When the narrator returns to Tokyo after meeting Sensei at the beach in Part I: Sensei and I, he has how long before the beginning of lectures at the college?
(a) 1 week.
(b) 4 days.
(c) 2 weeks.
(d) 10 days.

5. Where was Natsume Soseki born, according to the book’s Forward?
(a) Fukushima, Japan.
(b) Osaka, Japan.
(c) Tokyo, Japan.
(d) Kamakura, Japan.

Short Answer Questions

1. When the narrator first sees Sensei at a teahouse by the beach, he says that two days previously he had gone where?

2. During what years did the Meiji era last, according to the author in the Forward?

3. What game does the narrator play with his father while he is recovering to appease his boredom in Part I: Sensei and I?

4. The narrator says in Part I: Sensei and I, that his inn was in a rather out-of-the-way district of the beach town and if one wanted to play billiards or eat ice cream, a rickshaw would cost how much?

5. Where do Sensei and his wife take a holiday and send a letter with a maple leaf enclosed to the narrator from in Part I: Sensei and I?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Sensei ask Soseki on their walk in the tree nursery after Soseki has completed his thesis in Part I, Sensei and I?

2. What financial advice does Sensei give Soseki in the tree nursery in Part I, Sensei and I?

3. What does the novel’s translator write about the language in Kokoroin the Forward?

4. What is the narrative point-of-view in Kokoro? How is this perspective fitting for the novel?

5. Soseki has said that he is often disappointed by Sensei’s responses. How is this illustrated after Soseki visits Sensei after completing his term paper in Part I, Sensei and I?

6. What does Sensei say of “unnatural death” in Part I, Sensei and I?

7. How does Sensei respond when the narrator asks him to clarify his meaning of “guilt” in Part I, Sensei and I?

8. How does the narrator perceive Sensei’s relationship with his wife in Part I, Sensei and I?

9. Why does the narrator return home in Part I, Sensei and I? How does he depict his first days there?

10. What event does Sensei’s wife describe that hints at the reason Sensei changed and became removed from the world in Part I, Sensei and I?

(see the answer keys)

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