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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 are Signor and Signora Seguso doing when they notice the fire?

2. What does the narrator say the Fenice had been reduced to upon seeing the front of the building?

3. Who does the narrator say defeated Venice at the height of its grandeur?

4. According to the book, who founded the Venice Film Festival?

5. What does Giampaolo compare Murano to in talking about creativity?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Capitano Mario Moro.

2. What does Giampaolo Seguso tell the narrator about the rift with his family?

3. How did Felice Casson establish himself as a hard-driving investigator?

4. How does the Count Giovanni Volpi describe his father?

5. What does the narrator learn about Alistair McAlpine at the party?

6. What problem does the fire create for Signora Marcello, and how does she deal with the problem?

7. Describe the exchange between Ludovico De Luigi and Venice's mayor during the meeting at the Ateneo Veneto in Chapter 2.

8. What is the pigeon problem in Venice and how is it being dealt with?

9. What does the narrator say about Napoleon and what do these comments have to do with the current state of Venice?

10. How does the panel of experts come to the conclusion that the Fenice fire must not have been caused by arson?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Using Daniel and Patricia Curtis as examples, illustrate the novel's theme of the need to hang on to the past, and explain how this theme comes up within other stories in the book as well.

Essay Topic 2

Using specific details from the story, compare and contrast Gino and Giampaolo Seguso's views of family as presented in Chapter 7.

Essay Topic 3

Explain how the outcome of De Luigi's vandalism of the Fenice mural at the rebuilding site differs from what he expected and how the policeman's comment to De Luigi is significant for the rest of the story.

(see the answer keys)

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