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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 the narrator spend a lot of her time?

2. What does the therapist tell the narrator in the sacrificial beasts story?

3. Who is the artist in Part I?

4. Where did the impasse beast work at one time?

5. What kind of tongue did the male sacrificial beast have?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ge describe the smile of a sorrowful beast?

2. What kind of relationship does the narrator have with her professor?

3. What happens to Rain in Part I that is tragic?

4. What is unusual about the death of sacrificial beasts?

5. How does a joyous beast reproduce?

6. What is the nature of sorrowful beasts?

7. Why is Lucia upset by her visit to Cloudtop Towers?

8. What does the narrator's professor say about joyous beasts when she asks him about the picture in the paper?

9. How does Lefty "tame" the sorrowful beast?

10. How does the unnamed narrator describe her own work?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Ge describe and explore the sacrifices that parents make for their offspring through different characters and at different points in this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think Ge chose to write this novel from the first-person perspective of the unnamed narrator? How does this choice affect the reader's experience? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

What does the killing of both beasts and humans - in large numbers - at different points in the novel reveal about the government in this world Ge has built for the reader? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

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