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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 object does the unnamed narrator drop while reacting to the young prisoner's fall onto the concrete?
(a) Her cup of coffee.
(b) Her wallet.
(c) Her keys.
(d) The envelope containing her manuscript.

2. When the raid on the strip mall begins, the unnamed narrator hides behind what object while she clutches the envelope that holds her latest manuscript?
(a) A taxi stand.
(b) A mailbox.
(c) A lamp pole.
(d) A car.

3. Professor Inui tells the unnamed narrator in Chapter 5 that he and his family must move to what location in the morning?
(a) The genetic analysis center.
(b) The internment camp.
(c) The medical faculty office.
(d) The Memory Police barracks.

4. The narrator anxiously waits for R on the appointed Wednesday, knowing that it generally takes how many minutes to walk from the station to her house?
(a) 10.
(b) 30.
(c) 60.
(d) 25.

5. In the opening line of Chapter 5, the unnamed narrator states that which season passes "quickly" (27)?
(a) Spring.
(b) Summer.
(c) Winter.
(d) Autumn.

Short Answer Questions

1. It is revealed in Chapter 5 that the unnamed narrator's mother had received a letter from the Memory Police how many years back?

2. It is rumored that the Memory Police have recruited all people with what job to be informants for them?

3. The old man tells the unnamed narrator in Chapter 7 that he has lived on the island how much longer than she has?

4. In what location does the narrator tell R that she has found a hiding place for him?

5. At the end of Chapter 1, the unnamed narrator recalls asking her mother, "Why are you the only one who hasn't" (7) taken what action?

Short Essay Questions

1. Once R agrees to accept the narrator's offer to hide him, what instructions does she give him?

2. When an excerpt of the novel about the typist is provided at the start of Chapter 8, what has the protagonist lost?

3. What is named as "the first duty of the Memory Police" (14)?

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

5. For what reason does the narrator visit R's office in Chapter 10?

6. At what sight do the narrator and the old man gaze during their discussion of the Memory Police in Chapter 7?

7. What is the symbolism of the cabinet the unnamed narrator describes in relation to her mother in Chapter 1?

8. What type of artist was the unnamed narrator's mother and why is this detail significant?

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

10. 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).

(see the answer keys)

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