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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. How long after the protagonist’s mother died did her father die?

2. Whom does the protagonist ask if patients will surprise?

3. Which personality assessment had the protagonist sat for in the past?

4. Which of the following authors does the protagonist note having read?

5. In which city does the interlocutor teach?

Short Essay Questions

1. What attitude toward war does the protagonist report?

2. Per the novel, what is a calutron?

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

4. How does the protagonist argue that the Stanford-Binet test is racist?

5. How is the protagonist described upon admission to Stella Maris?

6. What compelled the protagonist’s family to move to Wartburg?

7. What is the significance of the Fields Medal?

8. How does the interlocutor note patients surprise him?

9. What, per the novel, is Gabelsberger?

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

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

The protagonist remarks that “intelligence is numbers. It’s not words. Words are things we’ve made up. Mathematics is not” (19). Does the novel bear out her remarks? How or how not?

Essay Topic 3

Stella Maris features only limited paratext, being almost completely consistent in formatting throughout the novel. Only the front matter and back matter vary. What effect does this have upon the reading, and how does the effect come across from the reading?

(see the answer keys)

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