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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 does Snow have on his hands?

2. What does Snow tell Kelvin when he asks about Sartorius?

3. What is Rheya wearing when Kelvin sees her?

4. Why does Kelvin think the warning is strange?

5. Who is in Gibarian's room when Kelvin arrives?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Snow's reaction when Kelvin admits that he has had his first visitor?

2. What do Rheya's death and Gibarian's death have in common?

3. What does Kelvin feel as he goes into his room on the space station?

4. Why do Sartorius, Snow, and Kelvin cover the cameras on their videophones?

5. Why is Kelvin surprised by his greeting when he approaches the research station?

6. How punctual does Kelvin say he is?

7. What does Kelvin do before removing his spacesuit?

8. Describe the person Kelvin is shocked to see go into Gibarian's room.

9. Who do the records say took The Little Apocrypha out of the library?

10. Why does Kelvin react emotionally to the two sundresses on the floor?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the novel Solaris, humanity has searched through the reaches of the galaxy and tried to explain what it has found. By far, the greatest mystery has been Solaris.

1) What reasons do Solarists and humanity in general have for trying to explain and understand Solaris, and the other things found in the galaxy?

2) Does "explaining" Solaris make the ocean into a reflection of humanity and human traits?

3) Are the Solarists looking for something spiritual, beyond the nature of humanity? If so, is it possible for humans to connect with the spiritual, outside of the human realm?

Essay Topic 2

Solaris is written in the first person point of view, from Kelvin's perspective. Discuss point of view in Solaris.

1) Kelvin enters the Solaris research in the middle of the action, when Gibarian is already dead. Why does the author choose to begin with Kelvin's arrival into an already ongoing situation?

2) The first person point of view restricts the reader's knowledge to Kelvin's thoughts and perception. Why does the author choose this point of view?

3) Why does the author focus on Kelvin as a character and Kelvin's interaction with his visitor, to the exclusion of the other visitors?

Essay Topic 3

At a sub-molecular level, Rheya is not human. Yet, on a normal level, Rheya is indistinguishable from a human being. Discuss Rheya's status as a person.

1) Is it possible that Rheya has no real "thought" process and is merely mimicking the behavior of a sentient creature? How would Kelvin know?

2) Should Rheya be treated as a person, with the rights and privileges of a human being? To what extent is she a person?

3) Could Rheya know if her thought process was fundamentally completely different from others', as long as her actions were human-like, and would it matter?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 755 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample