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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. What does the local bishop say in response to the event that has created controversy in Brussels when Julius arrives there?

2. How old is the Czechoslovakian tourist Julius has a one-night encounter with?

3. What is the wound that Julius says Farouq carries?

4. How does Julius describe the expression of the Welcomers when they get to the immigrant detention facility?

5. What does Julius think about doing in the boat basin behind the World Financial Center?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is V. and what is her relationship with Julius?

2. What does Julius contemplate doing when he thinks about his patient, M., at the boat basin behind the World Financial Center?

3. What does Julius say his work requires of him, and what does he say he enjoys about it?

4. How does the incident in which Musibau accused Julius of stealing his paper ultimately work in Julius’ favor?

5. What kind of trip does Julius make to Brussels?

6. Who does Julius imagine he sees, as he enters Brussels?

7. What are Julius’ thoughts on the weather and global warming?

8. What importance does Heliopolis hold, in the conversation between Julius and Dr. Maillotte?

9. What does Julius say his relationship with his mother is like?

10. What is the feeling Julius wakes up from his dream with, in the beginning of Chapter 10, in his first days in Brussels?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate the ending of Open City. Does it ring true to you? Does it successfully resolve the problems and tensions that preceded it? What would you change, if anything? What are you left wishing for closure on, if anything?

Essay Topic 2

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

Essay Topic 3

When is Open City most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,108 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample