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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. Whom does Yukio call when he goes outside?

2. Which rule does Miki forget to review with Kiyoshi that he later nearly breaks?

3. What causes Kimiko to tell Kiyoshi that he sounds like a detective?

4. What is the primary intent of the passage in which Miki comes out to pour the coffee and Nagare questions her about her readiness for the task?

5. When Yukio arrives in the past, what is Nagare doing?

Short Essay Questions

1. Immediately after losing all of his money, what is the only solution to his problems that Yukio can think of, and what prevents him from choosing this solution?

2. How do Yukio's actions and emotions during the scene where he first sits down in the time-travel chair foreshadow his plan to not return to the present?

3. What is Kurata wearing in the story's opening, and why does it make him seem out of place?

4. What larger point about life is the narrator of "Husband and Wife" making in the story's introductory comments about winter and spring?

5. What is Fumiko's relationship to the café?

6. Why does Kimiko have such a strong emotional reaction to the gift from Kiyoshi?

7. Why does Kiyoshi feel partially responsible for his wife's death?

8. What does Kinuyo explain to Yukio about the silver stirrer, and what does he realize this means Kinuyo knows?

9. When Yukio is discouraged about his future, what keeps him working toward becoming a potter?

10. What lies does Yukio tell his mother about taking care of himself, and why does he tell these lies?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In a text that focuses on the hopes and desires of different characters who come and go over the course of several separate stories, what is important about having Kazu's situation also reflect key thematic motifs? Which of the thematic motifs in Tales from the Café does Kazu's life story amplify? How does Kawaguchi encourage the reader to care about Kazu and whether she finds happiness? Write an essay that discusses the importance of Kazu as a consistent central figure in Tales from the Café and analyzes the techniques that Kawaguchi uses to make Kazu's happiness significant to the reader. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Do some more research into the uses of ghosts in Japanese literature. Now that you are aware of the identity of the ghost in Tales from the Café, what points about family relationships and mutual obligations would you say are being made through her appearance--and through her eventual disappearance? What do these ideas convey about the nature of happiness? Use your research and evidence from the collection to write an essay in which you analyze the thematic significance of Kaname's ghost in Tales from the Café. Be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

The relationship between Yukio and his mother is one of mutual obligation to each other's happiness. This relationship gives their lives meaning, and their obligations to one another do not end with either's death. How does the relationship between Kazu and Kaname echo this relationship? What other kinds of relationships does the text present similarly, as a two-way system of obligation that transcends death? Write an essay in which you consider the text's messages about mutual obligation in intimate human relationships. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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