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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. With which of the following does the first essay of the section, “Truth,” begin?

2. With what did China charge Ai Weiwei?

3. Which of the following was accused of being “a woman hungry of sex” (230)?

4. In what year does Rushdie first encounter Muhammad Ali?

5. In what decade does Rushdie posit the human population of India exceeded the divine?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Rushdie call the most ancient question (180)?

2. What justification does Rushdie see used to condemn artists in India and the United States?

3. Paraphrase the question Rushdie asks Saul Bellow at PEN America in 1986?

4. Paraphrase the remark by EB White about writing to children that Rushdie reports.

5. How does Rushdie define adaptation?

6. What does Rushdie note is the right answer to give when asked about autobiographical fiction?

7. What does Rushdie note caused the characters drawn from his biography to come alive?

8. Why does Rushdie argue that the Hinduism of the BJP is not true Hinduism?

9. How does Rushdie explain the American preoccupation with religion?

10. How does Rushdie differentiate a “historical” fact from a “basic” fact?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Rushdie is noted mostly as an author of fiction. Does his collection of essays suggest his fiction will be worthwhile for you to read? Why or why not? How or how not?

Essay Topic 2

How does Rushdie’s narrative voice change across the essays? What effect on the reader do the changes have? How is that effect achieved?

Essay Topic 3

Overall, what is the most important theme of Languages of Truth. What in the text indicates as much? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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