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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. How many cigars is August allowed each day?

2. In what year does the case Frommer works begin?

3. Which of the following dishes meets with Mieczyś’s approval?

4. What is the average monthly cost of lodging where Mieczyś lodges?

5. Which of the following does Thilo esteem as a painter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the subject of Thilo’s doctoral thesis?

2. How does Semperweiss characterize culture?

3. Why does Mieczyś begin to avoid August, Lukas, and Frommer?

4. What does Semperweiss note the point of having a gun is?

5. What gift does Thilo give Mieczyś?

6. How does Mieczyś react to Frommer’s comment about seeing him visit what had been Klara’s rooms?

7. How does Mieczyś know Schwärmerei tastes like ants?

8. What memory of Klara wakes Mieczyś in the night?

9. How does the sanatorium direct that blooded cloths be disposed of?

10. How does Semperweiss respond to the revelation of Mieczyś’s condition?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which character is the second most important in the text? How does the work support such an assertion?

Essay Topic 2

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Tokarczuk’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 3

A lack of formal sectional division in the novel obliges a fairly arbitrary breakdown of the text for purposes of study and discussion. On what grounds might the current divisions be in place? Why and how are they appropriate to the text?

(see the answer keys)

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