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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 Kelvin ask Rheya to wait while he visits Snow?

2. When does Snow say that the visitors first appeared?

3. What does Kelvin tell Rheya about her blood?

4. What does Kelvin overhear Rheya do in the middle of the night?

5. What experiment does Snow want Kelvin to perform?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Snow want to give Kelvin a job to do?

2. What book does Kelvin read in the library?

3. What reasons does Kelvin have not to tell Rheya what she wants to know?

4. What does Rheya say in her suicide note?

5. What does Snow call Rheya?

6. What can't Kelvin find, when he wakes in the morning?

7. Why doesn't Kelvin want to open a communications channel to the shuttle he launched?

8. What does Snow say that Sartorius wants to do to the ocean?

9. Why doesn't Kelvin share his doubts about the upcoming experiment with Rheya?

10. What metaphor does Kelvin use to describe trying to understand Solaris?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Discuss how Solaris' ocean can be seen as a metaphor for God.

1) Solaris' ocean creates a semblance of human beings, even bringing the dead back to life, at least on one level. In what ways can Solaris' creative power be compared to a god?

2) Solaris' ocean is beyond human understanding. In what ways can Solaris' unknowability be compared to a god?

3) Is Solaris' ocean in any way fundamentally different from a god?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Andre Berton's experiences on Solaris.

1) What are the meanings and implications of what Andre Berton saw? What do they tell us about Solaris' oceans?

2) How are Andre Berton's experiences related to the experiences of the scientists on the research station? Compare and contrast those experiences.

3) Why did the panel disbelieve and suppress Berton's reports of the instance on Solaris? What does this say about the failures of science?

(see the answer keys)

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