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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. Why do the villagers look forward to the arrival of the monk from St. Anthony's monastery?

2. What do the two men who know Brother Onion plan to do?

3. With whom does Caterina fall in love?

4. With whom does Tingoccio have an affair?

5. After a night of making love, what happens to the couple?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Calandrino learn that the magic has gone out of the rocks?

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

3. What is the result of a man sneaking into an Abbess' cell after he has fallen in love with her?

4. How are Caterina and Ricciardo found out?

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

6. When two of Brother Onion's friends see him in the village proclaiming he will show a feather from the angel Gabriel, what do they plan to do?

7. Explain the kind of work done by another ugly man by the name of Giotto di Bondone.

8. On the way home in the rain, what is Rabatta's insulting comment about his friend, Bondone?

9. How does Brother Onion recover when he takes the charcoal out of the box instead of the feather?

10. What unusual thing causes Peronella and her lover to look for a place to hide him?

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, 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.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, THE DECAMERON as an Early Example of the Modern Novel. In your essay point out how THE DECAMERON predates Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES which is often credited as being the first modern novel. Discuss the format of THE DECAMERON and how you think it qualifies as a novel.

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