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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 high school had Todd’s mother attended?

2. How does the novel gloss the term “l’Oublié”?

3. To which of the following does Evie go on her first postgraduate research expedition?

4. In what creature does Bart specialize?

5. In what class does Todd first encounter Rafi?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the title “President of French Polynesia” a lie in the novel?

2. From what do the phosphate deposits on Makatea derive?

3. What makes Bart a good study partner for Evie while they are in college together?

4. What is described as the major perk of the mayoral office on Makatea?

5. Why does Ina pray in Tahitian?

6. In the novel, what is the primary importance of phosphates?

7. Why is Evie asked about continental drift in her admissions appeal?

8. Why does Tamatoa not sleep at night?

9. Why is Rafi advanced a grade level?

10. Why does the young Evie fear nitrogen intoxication?

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

The novel makes much of colonialist and postcolonialist discourse. Overall, what attitude does the novel display towards colonialism, and how does it show that attitude?

Essay Topic 3

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Powers’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

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