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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. Where does Claire live?

2. What is Catherine wearing at the top of the scene?

3. What name does Claire call Catherine by?

4. What is Imaginary Number, or i?

5. Whose idea was it to have the band play at the house after the funeral?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Claire's personality different from Catherine's?

2. Why is Claire so worried when Catherine cannot explain the police presence at the house the night before?

3. How does Hal describe the mathematicians at his conferences?

4. Why is Hal's entrance at the end of the scene helpful for Catherine?

5. Why is Hal sensitive about getting older?

6. Who did Claire want to care for Robert during his illness, and who actually cared for him?

7. When did Hal and Catherine first meet?

8. Who is Sophie Germain?

9. What does Robert reveal about Catherine's state of mind in the first scene?

10. Why is it strange that Catherine and Robert are speaking in the beginning of the first scene?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contract Catherine and Claire. Though they are sisters, they have very different personalities.

1.) How did Claire want Robert's illness handled? How did Catherine want it handled?

2.) What pressure does Claire feel in regards to her family? What pressure does Catherine feel?

3.) How and why does Claire's intervention in her life offend Catherine?

Essay Topic 2

What role does time have in the play? How does the playwright use time loosely to share vital information about the characters and plot? Discuss the significance of Catherine's birthday. When does the date appear in the play? How many times?

Essay Topic 3

While Hal is a mathematician and a doctoral candidate, he mishandles almost his entire relationship Catherine.

1.) Describe Hal and Catherine's relationship in chronological order, starting with their first meeting and moving through the end of Act 2.

2.) Does Hal really care for Catherine, or is he only interested in her proof?

3.) Could Hal's attraction to Catherine also be tangled up with his sorrow over Robert's death?

(see the answer keys)

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