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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. At what point does Pietro speak and break the spell?

2. What happens when Ricciardo learns of Caterina's love for him?

3. What story does Gianni tell to excuse himself from taking Pietro's bed that night?

4. Who are Don Gianni di Barolo and Pietro da Tresanti?

5. What do the other nuns expect the abbess to do to the nun with a lover?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Calandrino finds what he thinks are magic rocks, what do Bruno and Buffalmacco decide to do.

2. What does Gualtieri do to assure himself that his wife, Griselda, is a worthy woman?

3. What is the result of Frederigo's attempts to impress Monna Giovanna?

4. How does Don Gianni di Barolo have his way with the wife of Pietro da Tresanti while Pietro looks on?

5. How does the nun know that the abbess cannot punish her?

6. How does the affair between Caterina and Ricciardo work itself out?

7. How does Peronella turn the situation around and get her husband inside the barrel.

8. What is the reply that Bondone gives Rabatta after his insult?

9. Explain how Peronella gets away with having a lover.

10. When collecting alms from a nearby village, what does Brother Onion use to get the people to give freely?

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 an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, The Absurdity of Applying Double Standards. Using the tale of the abbess who is caught with a man's pants on her head instead of her veil, write about applying double standards. Use both religious and political examples from the modern world as other examples in your essay.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, the device Boccaccio uses in the character of Dioneo tell the tenth tale every evening. Discuss this literary device in terms of transition and keeping the story flowing in the form of the novel. Conclude with the element of suspense that this device brings to THE DECAMERON making the reader want to read on.

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