View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Tancredi have done to Guiscardo after he learns of his affair with Ghismunda?

2. What do the nuns begin to do with Masetto?

3. Why is Masetto sleeping in the garden when the abbess finds him and begins to lust after him?

4. What causes the women of Alibech's town to laugh when she returns after the deaths of her family members?

5. Why does Abraham conclude that the Christian religion is strong and will last?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Andreuccio become the victim of a scam in Naples?

2. What do the village women tell Alibech after she explains how she put the devil back into hell with Rustico.

3. How dies Alatiel end up on the island of Majorca?

4. What is the quandary the Florentine brothers find themselves in when Ciappelletto becomes so ill?

5. What are the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Lorenzo, the lover of Isabetta?

6. Who takes Andreuccio into a scheme to make easy money?

7. What eventually transpires between Masetto and one of the nuns?

8. How does Alatiel eventually end up with the king of Algarve?

9. After becoming a widow shortly after her marriage, what does Ghismunda see her father, Tancredi, has no plans of doing?

10. Describe the happy occasion for Alatiel as she prepares to get married.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, Why Story Telling is Becoming a Lost Art. Begin with the modern media today that involves being spoon fed stories in visual and interactive formats. Discuss the fact that people no longer sit together and relate tales they have made up or have heard. Speculate how different the situation of THE DECAMERON would have been if all the people in the group had iPods and PCs.

Essay Topic 2

Write a story of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages in the style of THE DECAMERON. This is a creative writing assignment where you are required to tell a story using the euphemistic language of THE DECAMERON and one of the themes such as unexpected happy endings or tragic endings.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, Medical Pandemics Through the Ages. In your essay describe the Black Death that swept Europe in the Middle Ages and why it lasted so long. Then discuss pandemics of more modern times such as polio and various virulent strains of the flu. Conclude with how these plagues affect the human psyche.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 891 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample