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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. Why was Sem in Germany in 1999?

2. Where does Sanja want to be buried?

3. When did Harun live in an apartment in Los Angeles for just a few months with his girlfriend?

4. What word did Harun use to describe his father when his father gave a reading at Villa Aurora?

5. How long did Sem live in the same town with Sanja's father?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what language does Sem write?

2. What hangs from Harun's belt, and what does Sem learn about them?

3. What does Sem remember Harun telling a college interviewer?

4. What is unusual about the corridor from the elevator to Sem and Sanja's apartment door, and what problems has that caused?

5. What does Harun photograph at night, and to what does Sem compare the way that Harun creates photographs?

6. How did Harun acquire the habit of going into the mountains when he was quite young, and what did he do there?

7. What does Sem tell Sanja is in the hospital when she asks what happened to her?

8. How does Sem compare photographs and drawings?

9. What memory of driving in New Mexico does Sem hope that Sanja has not forgotten?

10. What encounter at a cafe does Sem recall?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sanja and Sem have been together for 30 years. How does their relationship change after her stroke? What are their new roles?

Essay Topic 2

Sem and Harun visit Arcosanti. In what way is Arcosanti an incomplete city? Why does Sem think everything that is built or is written should be incomplete? How would that incompleteness allow a process to last indefinitely? What would be the advantage of a process that lasts indefinitely?

Essay Topic 3

A simile is a figure of speech that is used to make comparisons between things. How does the use of metaphors or similes to help readers comprehend concepts? How does the use of similes help readers make the writing more interesting? What purpose do similes serve in the book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 937 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample