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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. Of what religion is the interlocutor’s spouse?

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

3. Per the novel, how large a percentage of the general population is Jewish?

4. From what catalog does the protagonist buy a violin?

5. Which friend of the protagonist’s brother helped the protagonist forge a birth certificate?

Short Essay Questions

1. What attitude toward war does the protagonist report?

2. How does the interlocutor note patients surprise him?

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

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

5. What is the significance of the Fields Medal?

6. How does the protagonist note arriving at the Kid’s height?

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

8. What attitude does the protagonist report her father had toward the use of atomic weapons in World War II?

9. What opinion of Oppenheimer does the protagonist ascribe to her father?

10. Why did the protagonist’s father hide his first marriage?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what other writer’s work in your experience does McCarthy’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 2

Explicate the significance of the name of any one character in the text.

Essay Topic 3

Describe the framing device at work in the novel. How does it function? How do you know?

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