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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 does a prime beast do to the narrator?

2. What color are the lips of the prime beasts?

3. What does Zhong Liang tell the narrator about her story about the thousand league beasts?

4. Who is the film star Zhong Liang seems to be looking for?

5. What are the shop assistants very particular in instructing the buyers of heartsick beasts about?

Short Essay Questions

1. What connection does the narrator have to Methuselah?

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

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

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

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

6. How does Methuselah die?

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

8. Why is the wood of flourishing beast saplings so valuable?

9. What do impasse beasts feed on?

10. Who nurses the narrator back to health after her run-in with the prime beast?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In what instances does Ge employ irony throughout the novel - perhaps especially in the naming of the classes of beasts themselves? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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.

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