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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 subject is some of the widows knowledgeable about?

2. What does the snowfall fail to lessen in Huang's story?

3. What is the town that is looted by bandits?

4. In "Hsi-liu," how old is the widow when she is forced to raise two sons on her own?

5. Since the widow does not have any rights at all, what do the cousins believe that by killing the boy they could get in the Woman P'eng story?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened in the story of the man falling asleep and dreaming?

2. Describe Hsi-liu and her struggle with Ch'ang fu.

3. How does Lien's killer misunderstand the Chinese law?

4. Describe the earthquake in T'ang-Ch'en in 1668.

5. What is the story that P'eng's husband's relatives make up in order to attack Lien?

6. How does Hsiao-erh save the the people in the village from drought and famine?

7. What is the pao-chia system?

8. Describe corvee in T'an-ch'eng in the 1640s.

9. What does Huang Liu-hung find most disturbing about the people in his county?

10. What is the funny story involving a fox and a rebellion that P'u Sung-ling tells?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe some of the settings for The Death of Woman Wang. What was the overall setting? Be sure to include geography, time period and any pertinent popular culture events. How did these settings reflect the time period and culture of 17th century China?

Essay Topic 2

Explain the role of women in rural China in the 1600s when the women in the stories and the main narrative are living their lives. What precedents do they feel compelled to follow? What restrictions do they have? What freedoms did they have that 21st century women do not have?

Essay Topic 3

Spence is a master at dramatic devices. Describe the symbolism, metaphors, and irony present in Wang's dream and identify the technique which they embody.

(see the answer keys)

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