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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. Over which desert is the station noted to pass?

2. Which of the following epithets is applied to humanity?

3. In what season had Therese’s husband died?

4. In which state does the novel remark Armstrong and Aldrin trained?

5. Which of the following epithets is applied to humanity?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the novel posit as the fate of the earth?

2. What problem does Roman identify in America and the rest of the world?

3. How are station crew advised to acclimate themselves to spacewalks?

4. What does Pietro note the fisherman’s children know that their parents do not know or do not care to know?

5. Why does the daytime view of the earth attract the station crew’s attention?

6. How does Anton realize his marriage is loveless?

7. Why is the southern tip of Spain reflective?

8. Why does Anton bring crackers and salt to the station?

9. What does Chie note as the most common fate of dagashiya?

10. Why are there signs restricting toilet use on the station?

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

Conversely, given demonstrated efforts toward censorship in a number of countries, what would likely prompt bans of Orbital? By which groups? Why?

Essay Topic 3

To what genre other than science fiction might Orbital be considered to belong? What in the text supports that identification? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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