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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. What kind of story does the narrator write about the prime beasts?

2. What kind of beast does the narrator begin to think she might be?

3. Why does Zhong Liang beg the narrator to come back to the city?

4. Where do people usually buy heartsick beasts?

5. How does the narrator keep tabs on the person who is trying to find her in Part III while staying for awhile at a different place?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Zhong Liang's role in the professor's operations?

2. How does the narrator realize she herself is a heartsick beast?

3. What kind of relationship seems to be developing between Zhong Liang and the narrator in Part IV?

4. How does Lucia's mother feel when Lucia wants her heartsick beast to look like the narrator?

5. Who saves the narrator from the impasse beast's effects?

6. What kind of relationship does the narrator have with Fei Fei in Part III?

7. What is very unique about the thousand league beasts?

8. Why does the narrator tell Zhong Liang her stories have to be fairly simple?

9. What theory does the narrator hatch about her own history with prime beasts?

10. Why do female prime beasts sometimes kill their own children?

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

How and why is this novel an example of the genre of magical realism? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

How and why do you think Ge employs ambiguity in both her descriptions of the relationships between sets of characters throughout the book, as well as concerning some major plot points? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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