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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 does Baley say about "seeing" Olivaw?

2. About what does Baley think on the plane?

3. How does Gladia respond to Baley's question?

4. What does Baley ask Gladia concerning the murder?

5. With what does Olivaw believe Earth inhabitants have problems?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do people on Solaria communicate and what are Baley's beliefs about how that will affect his investigation?

2. What does Albert reply to Baley's reluctance to accept the assignment?

3. Why do the authorities believe Gladia did not kill her husband and what does Gladia say when Elijah asks her if she did it?

4. What is Baley's response to his orders?

5. What does Daneel tell Elijah about Solaria, and what is Elijah's response?

6. How are the farming and mining areas set apart from other Earth space?

7. What shocks Baley about his first communication with Gladia, and how does she explain the situation? What is Elijah's response?

8. Describe Elijah Baley.

9. Where is Elijah Baley at the opening of the novel and about what is he thinking?

10. Describe Gladia Delmarre.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Because of the way Solaria is structured, the life expectancy of the human beings is much greater than that of Earth either then or now. Discuss the following:

1. What would it be like to have a life expectancy of several hundred years?

2. Could Earth sustain life if people lived that long?

3. Do you think if the life expectancy were that long, the birth rate would plummet?

4. How long would adolescence last if one lived to be 350 years old?

Essay Topic 2

Klorissa also tells Elijah that the people of Solaria hate to be married. It is disgusting and unnatural and Dr. Delmarre had been working on a way to fertilize eggs so that the need for marriage would be done away with and no one would ever have to see each other again. Discuss the following:

1. What is the irony in Klorissa feeling that sexual relationships as a means of reproduction is unnatural?

2. Most cultures have their own ideas of what is natural and unnatural; children raised in a particular culture absorb those beliefs. How does that fact hinder change?

3. What do you think it would take for Solarians to become a culture based upon close human contact? Discuss fully.

Essay Topic 3

There are a number of interesting questions raised by The Naked Sun--questions that most likely Asimov wanted the readers to consider and think through carefully. Discuss the following:

1. Name one idea/concept you think may have been a part of the author's agenda. Analyze that idea throughout the book and discuss Asimov's probable agenda concerning that idea.

2. Do you think writers who have an agenda for writing should point it out in a preface?

3. How often do you think fiction is written with a clear agenda in mind by the author?

(see the answer keys)

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