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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. About what does the abbess challenge Margot?

2. What do Margot and the person who introduces herself to Margot discuss?

3. Why might the convent not be financially viable?

4. Where does Margot think many repairs need to be made?

5. What did Alessandro do on the day of the flood?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Margot's new living quarters remind her of and how does she change that?

2. Why is Margot drawn to some frescoes she views in the convent and how is that uncharacteristic of her?

3. Describe Margot's discussion of the library with Madre Badessa.

4. How is the monastery partially responsible for the possible damage to some of their frescoes?

5. Discuss the significance of Señor Bruni in Margot's life as a teenager.

6. How is Margot spending time during the long plane and train rides?

7. How does Margot respond to working at the convent?

8. What is the significance of Harvard University to Margot?

9. Where does Margot end up staying and what does she do on her first morning in Florence?

10. What does Margot decide to do in Chapter 1 and who is against her doing so?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The abbess challenges Margot to define which vow is the hardest to keep. The abbess gives the answer as obedience.

1. Which vow--poverty, chastity or obedience do you think would be most difficult to keep? Why?

2. Do you think taking vows for life is realistic--whether it's for a religious order or marriage? Is it serious to break a vow? What if you change and no longer believe the church's doctrine? Do you keep your vows no matter what?

3. Jesus, who is the one the Christians center their religion around, said in a book of the Christian's New Testament (Matthew 5:34): to swear no vows. Why do you think the Christian religious orders swear vows? Is this a paradox? Do you think vows are necessary to keep someone in the religious order? If someone doesn't want to be there, why would a vow keep them? Discuss these questions/ideas thoroughly.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1. What do you think are the characteristics of a successful novel?

2. Analyze and discuss The Sixteen Pleasures based upon the criteria you decide upon in #1 and judge if The Sixteen Pleasures is a successful novel. Explain your rationale with specific examples.

3. Do you think the fact that The Sixteen Pleasures is a women's novel changes the criteria upon which its success should be judged? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Margot refers to the poem her mother had loved by Robert Frost entitled "The Road Not Taken." Margot realizes that there is no "other road." Her only life is the one that she is living now. Discuss the following:

1. Thoroughly analyze and give a reader response to Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken." Consider such things as imagery, metaphor, syntax, rhythm, and of course, meaning.

2. Take your analysis of "The Road Not Taken" and trace and analyze how it is relevant to The Sixteen Pleasures. What characters are most concerned with the road not taken? What character(s) have irretrievably lost something important by taking a different fork? What character(s) cannot recover from a poor choice made at various forks?

3. Discuss one or two of your own "roads not taken." Do you still regret taking one road versus another in a particular situation? Do you think it would be good to let go? Can you go back and travel the other road? What "difference" has the choice made for you?

(see the answer keys)

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