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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. Which country does the protagonist leave to arrive at Stella Maris?

2. To which of the following does the protagonist compare the interlocutor?

3. For whom, along with Grothendieck, was the IHES established?

4. In what year was the protagonist born?

5. To what kind of athlete does the protagonist compare the Kid?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the protagonist consider music an exception to the rules governing other things?

2. What is the significance of the Fields Medal?

3. How does the protagonist explain her affinity for mental health inpatients?

4. Per the novel, what is a calutron?

5. How does the protagonist explain the decision to commit herself, rather than to be committed?

6. Why had the protagonist hoped to get into the Coletta facility?

7. What purpose for entertainment does the interlocutor posit?

8. What reason is given for Grothendieck leaving the IHES?

9. How does the protagonist explain Grothendieck’s activism?

10. What work did the protagonist’s father do after the use of atomic weapons in World War II?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The novel motions towards an idea of what it means to be great. What is that idea? What in the text indicates as much? How does the text indicate as much?

Essay Topic 2

In discussing subatomic particles, the novel presents a seeming anachronism: the mention of the top quark (44). Why might the anachronism be present? What in the novel supports that reasoning, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

While the novel is told from a third-person perspective, much of it is narrated by the protagonist rehearsing events to an interlocutor. How reliable is the protagonist of the novel as a narrator? What in the text indicates that reliability, and how does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 539 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample