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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 does Alex know about the missing daughter of the Senator?

2. When Alex is fighting the man, what happens to stop the fight?

3. What happens when Joanna calls the number of the insurance company that issued the life insurance check?

4. Why does Alex not want to rush their relationship?

5. Why does Joanna decide to take too many sleeping pills?

Short Essay Questions

1. What has happened to Wayne Kennedy and how is he reacting to it?

2. What does Joanna do in response to her depression and her decision to push Alex away?

3. What does Alex tell Joanna about Thomas Chelgrin and his daugther?

4. What does Alex realize about Joanna when he keeps thinking about her?

5. What does Joanna finally decide about her nightmares and why do you think Alex agreed to help?

6. Who is Mariko Inamura to Joanna and what does she suggest to Joanna?

7. With all the evidence in place, what does Mariko suggests? What might this foreshadow and what is the ultimate outcome?

8. What new character is introduced in Chapter 32 and what might the reader suspect about him and why?

9. Describe what happens in Joanna's session with Inamura.

10. Emotionally, how might the reader respond to the malice Carrera seems to carry?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Alex is clearly smitten with Joanna, and when he asks her to have lunch with him, it makes it seem to the reader that a romance might be in the air, touching on one of the themes of the novel.

1. Discuss what evidence you have seen thus far of romance being one of the themes in this book. Use examples from the book to illustrate your answer.

2. Alex has watched Joanna on stage for a few nights and is "smitten" with her. Does this seem realistic? Why or why not?

3. Alex being smitten with Joanna would seem to be like someone falling for an actor or actress in a movie. Are they falling for a real person or the person that is being portrayed in the part? Discuss this concept with examples to support your opinion.

Essay Topic 2

Joanna is plagued by a recurring nightmare in which a man with a mechanical hand uses a hypodermic needle to do something unclear to her. Joanna always wakes from this dream in the grip of a panic. It seems Joanna is uninterested in learning the truth about the dream, perhaps afraid of finding out something she does not want to know.

1. Why do you think Joanna doesn't want to find out the cause of her nightmares? Use examples from the text and your own thoughts to support your answer.

2. Do you think nightmares always have a cause? Why or why not?

3. Describe a recurring nightmare you or someone you know has had. Compare it to Joanna's. How do you or the person having the nightmare deal with it?

Essay Topic 3

Joanna encourages Mariko to explore a relationship with Wayne despite the Japanese mindset that is against these types of relationships.

1. After doing research on Japanese culture and women, discuss the ways in which Mariko adheres to gender expectations and ways in which she doesn't.

2. The Japanese culture is against any relationship which involves a Japanese person and a person of another ethnic race or culture. Why do you think a culture would evolve such a stricture? Do you think that informal expectation has changed with the shrinking of the world through the internet and easy travel between parts of the world?

3. Discuss why you believe Mariko should follow her heart and not her culture. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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