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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. To which of the following does Cyrus compare himself?

2. What is the suggested donation to enter the museum where Orkideh has her final installation?

3. Which of the following channels do Cyrus and Zee watch in their hotel room?

4. Which of the following does Cyrus cite for comments about grief?

5. What moniker do Cyrus and Zee assign to the sitting President of the United States?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why had Arash listened to Allegri’s Miserere?

3. How does Ali note his wife had looked at him?

4. Why does Cyrus posit Sang Linh is able to function so soon after Orkideh’s death?

5. In the novel, what is a myth?

6. Why does Ferdowsi give away the copper he receives?

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

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

9. How is Ferdowsi commissioned to write the Shahnameh?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the significance of the name of any one character in the text.

Essay Topic 2

A lack of formal sectional division in the novel obliges a fairly arbitrary breakdown of the text for purposes of study and discussion. How might the novel be sectioned off other than it currently is? Why might those divisions be appropriate, based on the text and its contexts of composition and reception?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 532 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample