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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. In what city did Toru go to college?

2. What was Naoko talking about in the meadow?

3. What is the title of the song Midori wrote herself?

4. Why was Toru on the train the day he ran into Naoko?

5. What does Nagasawa tell Toru is his "standard of action"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Area C.

2. How did Toru become friends with Nagasawa?

3. What does Toru assume about the name of Ami Hostel?

4. Describe Nagasawa.

5. How did Naoko and Toru spend their afternoon together after meeting on the train?

6. What was the "field well"?

7. What was the morning ceremony at the dormitory where Toru lived as a college student?

8. Why does the narrator, Toru, say that memory is such a funny thing as he describes the scene he remembers from the meadow?

9. How does Toru spend the summer break?

10. What is Midori's job?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the beginning of the novel, Toru says that from Kizuki's death he learned that death is not separate from but part of life. How is this philosophy carried out through the rest of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Murakami's use of music to develop his story.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Murakami's use of the character Reiko to advance the idea that one has to choose to be happy.

(see the answer keys)

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