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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 chant does Zee take up alongside Ali and Rumi in Cyrus’s dream-vision?

2. In what area had Ali done military service?

3. After what sword is Arasah’s sword modeled?

4. How much does Cyrus leave as a tip for the hotel housekeeper?

5. Of what does Cyrus note Orkideh smells?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the front desk clerk at Cyrus’s hotel ask him when he checks out?

2. Why does Cyrus sit outside with Zee at a café near Prospect Park?

3. Why, per Cyrus, is it particularly American to discount dreams?

4. Why does Orkideh note the Mona Lisa is notable?

5. Why does Ali retain contraband records in Iran?

6. At what cost does Orkideh purchase a painting in Cyrus’s dream-vision?

7. To what does Cyrus ascribe his inability to focus on the now?

8. What gift does Orkideh give Cyrus for his project?

9. What does the docent who sees Cyrus collapse in the museum discuss with Cyrus?

10. How is Ferdowsi commissioned to write the Shahnameh?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what genre other than urban fiction might Martyr! be considered to belong? What in the text supports that identification? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Akbar’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 3

A lack of formal sectional division in the novel obliges a fairly arbitrary breakdown of the text for purposes of study and discussion. On what grounds might the current divisions be in place? Why and how are they appropriate to the text?

(see the answer keys)

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