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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 year did Collins take his photograph?

2. How many seconds less than someone on earth does a member of the station crew age in six months?

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

4. What sweet does Anton favor?

5. Approximately how many months long is each crew member’s mission?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Pietro regard being an astronaut?

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

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

4. Why does the fisherman not flee from the typhoon?

5. Why is Anton persistently tired?

6. Why does Chie have skin emollient?

7. What are the normal topics of conversation among the station crew?

8. Why must the station crew exercise for hours daily?

9. What is it that prompts the fisherman to realize his children’s beauty?

10. What question does the novel posit aliens might ask about the presence of the station and missions on it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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

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

What purpose is served by the novel’s note of the station’s deterioration? How is that purpose served? What effect does it have on reading?

(see the answer keys)

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