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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 is Kyoko's reaction to Kazu asking about her brother?

2. Which is the best description of Kazu's appearance?

3. Who is the author of Tales from the Café?

4. What does Gohtaro notice hanging on the café wall?

5. After congratulating Haruka on her marriage, what does Shuichi do next?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the exchange between Kyoko and Kazu about Kazu's boyfriend characterize both women?

2. Why does Haruka's plan to marry mean that she will inevitably discover her true parentage?

3. What rule of time traveling in the café does Gohtaro almost immediately break when he returns to the past, and who saves him from this error?

4. How does the juxtaposition of the made-up lyrics to Miki's song with Kyoko's emotions after her confession about her brother highlight Kyoko's distress?

5. When Shuichi tells Haruka in his message, "If it is for you, I can do anything," what does this foreshadow (36)?

6. When Gohtaro tells Shuichi, "Haruka has decided to get married," how does the narrator explain Shuichi's reaction, and what does the reader later learn is the real reason for his reaction?

7. What warning does Kazu give Gohtaro about remembering to drink his coffee?

8. When Gohtaro wakes up just after eight o'clock, what does Miki try to do, and how do her father and Kazu react?

9. What are the rules of the time-traveling café?

10. When Gohtaro first sees Shuichi in the past, why does the gesture of putting his hand around his coffee cup cause Gohtaro to suddenly panic about his own ability to communicate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Now that you have read several Kawaguchi stories, you will have noticed a structural pattern. How does he begin each story? What kinds of exposition does he interrupt the narrative flow with, and at what points does he generally interrupt? How--and when--does he use flashback, and what is distinctive about his style of flashback? Write an essay in which you consider how Kawaguchi generally structures his stories and what connection this structure has to the themes he is developing in these narratives. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

By the end of Tales from the Café, how has Kazu changed? What details and language early in the story establish that Kazu is trapped in the past? How does Kawaguchi use exposition and narrative action to explain her situation and begin to resolve it over the course of the four stories in the collection? How do other characters contribute to the change Kazu undergoes? What details and language at the end of the story demonstrate that Kazu has finally begun to heal from her grief? Write an essay that traces the development of Kazu's story and analyzes how she changes over the course of this collection. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

How does the text's advice about dealing with regret differ from its advice about dealing with grief? What similarities are there between these two emotions, and what is the key difference between them that leads to the text advocating different ways of dealing with them? Write an essay in which you explore the text's position on the sources and impact of these two emotions as well as its differing advice for dealing with them. Use the examples of the time-travelers in the collection to support your assertions. Be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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