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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 did Charles give Viktor for a wedding present?

2. Why was Freud once called a dirty Jew on a train?

3. What does the staircase in the medical insurance office curl up like?

4. Which of the following painters did Charles correspond with?

5. What color eyes does the netsuke hair have?

Short Essay Questions

1. What evidence does de Waal to prove Charles was friends with all the great Paris artists of the late 19th century?

2. How did the Dreyfus affair effect Jewish people?

3. What does Edmund learn about Charles at the end of Chapter 3?

4. How did Charles start collecting?

5. Why does Edmund think he has fallen for Charles?

6. What was the family's goal in terms of their grain business?

7. Why was Japan a box of sweets for foreigners in the 1880s?

8. What can de Waal envision as he scans Charles' room?

9. What does Edmund think was strange about Charles' relationship with the Impressionist painters?

10. Describe the Ringstrasse when it was first built in Vienna.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How was Hitler able to turn the public against the Jews and other minorities in Germany? What was the environment in Germany that allowed him to create such hatred towards the minorities? What has western Europe done to ensure this won't happen again?

Essay Topic 2

Why do the students think de Waal only shows the life of the rich Jews such as his family members in his book? In light of all the problems, what are the disadvantages with representing only the rich Jewish members of society? How would the meaning of the book changed if he had represented the lives of some of the poorer members of Jewish society?

Essay Topic 3

Which family member in the book does de Waal identify with the most? Why does he identify with that particular family member? How do think they would have gotten along if they had met in real life?

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This section contains 915 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample