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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 do impasse beasts eat?

2. Who are impasse beasts descendants of?

3. What happens when an impasse beast ages?

4. Who is a good friend of the narrator's?

5. What do flourishing beasts never eat?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Cloud do to Lefty that is unexpected and horrific?

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

3. In Part I, what does the narrator's professor tell her might have happened to the male sorrowful beast Cloud?

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

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

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

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

8. What is the nature of sorrowful beasts?

9. How did being in close contact with a joyous beast seem to affect the mayor of Yong'An?

10. Why do sorrowful beasts seek only one mate in life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the narrator's professor's teachings and views about various beasts affect the narrator's approach to beasts throughout the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

Why and how does the narrator experience guilt over the course of the novel - especially as the feeling relates to her professor, Charley, and Zhong Liang? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

How does writing newspaper stories and novels affect the narrator's own perceptions of her feelings and confusions throughout the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

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