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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. Who do the computer records show deleted files off Victor's computer?

2. Who does Victor suspect of deleting the files?

3. Where does Victor go after VJ's medical tests?

4. Why did Victor use two of the embryos on his employees' wives?

5. What game is Maurice a master of?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Victor's response to the news of Mark Murray's illness?

2. Compare Marsha and Victor's attitudes toward their son.

3. What is Victor's response to Mark Murray's death?

4. What is Victor's attitude toward Marsha?

5. What does Marsha find difficult to accept about VJ's personality?

6. What does VJ do at Victor's computer?

7. What interrupts Marsha and Victor at the end of Chapter 6?

8. What is the implication of Mark and Maurice's illnesses?

9. What does Victor see that he was doing on the day that the records show the missing files were deleted from his computer?

10. What does Victor think, when he sees the baby after he is born?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the structure of the novel.

1) Why does the author choose the particular scenes in the prologue and epilogue? How are they important to the story?

2) Why does the author tell the bulk of the novel over the course of a few days? How does the timeline affect the experience of reading the novel?

3) What are the moments of major revelation, crisis, and change in the novel? When do they occur, and how does the action build and resolve?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the conflict of nature and science in the novel.

1) What is the metaphoric significance of the river, a force of nature, and the clock tower, a work of science, in the novel? How is this metaphor carried out through the novel and especially at its end?

2) How do nature and science conflict in Victor's work? When science manipulates nature, what is the result?

3) In the novel, can mankind succeed in taming or defying nature? To what extent? Support your answer with evidence from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate the ending of the novel.

1) Why does Victor choose to kill himself in the process of killing VJ? How is this decision appropriate or inappropriate?

2) Does VJ need to be killed? Is a violent death the best, or only, solution to the problem?

3) How is the manner of VJ's death appropriate to the story? What is the author trying to communicate through the manner of VJ's death?

4) What does the epilogue add to the novel? Why does the author introduce another super-intelligent child at the end of the book?

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