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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. The conversation between the unnamed narrator and the old man in Chapter 7 takes place on what type of vehicle?
(a) A boat.
(b) A pedicab.
(c) A motorcycle.
(d) A train.

2. Once R and the narrator fall into a predictable daily routine, what is the only time she lingers in R's room to chat?
(a) When she brings him a bucket of water for bathing.
(b) When she collects his lunch tray.
(c) When she collects his dinner tray.
(d) When she collects his breakfast tray.

3. Who is NOT the subject of one of the novelist narrator's three books that she has published thus far?
(a) A doctor.
(b) A ballerina with one leg.
(c) A piano tuner.
(d) A young woman caring for her ill brother.

4. The narrator is perplexed by her new editor's question about what topic, since R had never posed the question to her?
(a) Her ideas for her next novel.
(b) Whether she has ever been in love.
(c) What she would like to get paid.
(d) When her next novel will be finished.

5. The unnamed narrator's home on the island is very close to what sort of body of water?
(a) A bog.
(b) A lake.
(c) A river.
(d) A bay.

Short Answer Questions

1. The unnamed narrator of The Memory Police states in Chapter 1 that her mother had been what type of artist?

2. The unnamed narrator states in Chapter 6, "It's always sad when a" what "disappears" (44)?

3. Who originally comes up with the idea for R to hide from the Memory Police in the unnamed narrator's home?

4. When the Memory Police arrive unannounced at the unnamed narrator's home in Chapter 2, what action does she ask them to take, though she is ignored?

5. The unnamed narrator states in Chapter 2 that she believes that she has a group of which family members "living in a village near the source of the far side of the mountains" (8)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the pair of light blue gloves symbolize, from the narrator's perspective?

2. How is the raid witnessed by the narrator in Chapter 4 different than all previous raids, according to the narrator?

3. Who raps on the narrator's basement window in Chapter 4 and for what purpose?

4. What type of document is presented within the text for the first, but not the last, time in Chapter 6?

5. Discuss an instance when Ogawa uses a metaphor or simile to demonstrate the desolation that begins to characterize the island after many disappearances.

6. What do the black garbage bags symbolize in Chapter 2?

7. Explain the first line of the novel, which states, "I sometimes wonder what was disappeared first---among all the things that have vanished from the island" (3).

8. Discuss an instance when Ogawa uses a metaphor or simile to describe R's ability to hold onto memories of disappeared objects.

9. When the narrator makes her usual stop at the ornithology observatory in Chapter 3, what does she find there?

10. For what reason do the Memory Police visit the unnamed narrator in Chapter 2?

(see the answer keys)

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