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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 detail does the story give about the shape of the tape on the windows?
2. What does the narrator say "usually promises to be interesting" (19)?
3. Why are rams' horns being blown all around the city?
4. What does the sick man want when he calls the main character?
5. Who is the author of "The Center of the Story"?
Short Essay Questions
1. Why does the man in the main character's story think that he is dying, and what does he do about it?
2. What does the woman realize about her religious belief and the calm she feels?
3. How is the story that the woman is writing similar to the earth and different from a hurricane?
4. What arguments for and against including the newscasters in her story does the woman entertain?
5. What contradiction does Davis's first sentence introduce?
6. Explain what the "yellow pall" is and what things in Davis's story it is attached to.
7. What comment does the story make about paring a story down to the essentials, and what does this have to do with Davis's own style?
8. Why does the woman watch the news so often, and what does she hear on the news that makes her feel exicted?
9. What is the woman's story about, and what is its major flaw?
10. Who are the people in the story that the writer is working on?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Write an essay that affirms, refutes, or qualifies the following statement: "The metafictional nature of 'The Center of the Story' means that its author, Lydia Davis, functions as a sort of 'ghost' character who, though never openly discussed, participates in the meaning of the story through its construction." Support your claims with evidence from the text.
Essay Topic 2
Write an essay that analyzes the role that fear plays in "The Center of the Story." Support your claims with evidence from the text.
Essay Topic 3
Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the significance of things that are absent, missing, or fail to happen in "The Center of the Story." Support your ideas with evidence from the text.
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This section contains 912 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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