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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. To whose music does Pietro listen?

2. Which of the following does Shaun see when he first wakes in the novel?

3. On what orbit does the station manage to see the least trace of life on earth?

4. Over what body of water does the station pass?

5. Where does Roman live?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Pietro regard being an astronaut?

2. What question does Shaun’s teacher ask about Las Meninas?

3. Why does Chie have skin emollient?

4. Where do lost things on the station go, and why?

5. Why does Anton posit his brain repeats dreams?

6. Why does the station boast a Happy Birthday banner?

7. To what does the novel compare the experience of traveling from earth to the station?

8. Per the novel, why were the Voyager probes sent out?

9. How are the cells with which Anton and Roman work derived?

10. How does Shaun report watching the first moon landing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The novel makes a point of noting many, many physical locations as the space station passes over them. What effect does that geographic litany have on the text, and how does that effect manifest? That is, what is the novel doing when it lists so many locations, and how is it doing so?

Essay Topic 2

Sources attest to the presence of Orbital on best-seller lists. Assuming that sales figures reflect popularity, what accounts for the popularity of the novel? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Which character is the second most important in the text? How does the work support such an assertion?

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