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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 had Cousteau built the Starfish House?

2. Where does Ina go after graduate school?

3. Which of the following colleges does Rafi initially choose to attend?

4. From what country had the Queen’s husband come?

5. Into the wreckage of which war operation does Evie dive?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Ina’s master’s project in art?

2. What is Rafi’s refuge on campus as a freshman?

3. What coda does Evie hope to witness from helping the manta ray?

4. Why does Rafi obsess over editing his master’s thesis?

5. What dangers confront Evie as she dives for her war-operation assignment?

6. Why does Rafi take a college course in European Literary Modernism while still in high school?

7. What is Todd’s refuge on campus as a freshman?

8. What privileges does the Queen associate with her title?

9. To what does the Queen ascribe Evie’s ability to dance?

10. Why does Rafi initially intend to attend community college?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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

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

Consider the cosmogyny expressed in the first two sections of the novel. What does it explain in your world? What does it fail to explain? How?

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