View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What invitation does Margot decline?

2. For what does Margot listen during brief moments of silence?

3. What changed Margot's life shortly after going to Villa I Tatti?

4. What does the bishop think the convent should not have?

5. What happens to the taxi in which Margot is riding?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Margot first offend two American travelers on the train and then bond with them?

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

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

4. What are Margot's impressions of Professor Eugene Chapin?

5. Why are two of the postulants in trouble?

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

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

8. How does Margot react to the book that the postulants keep over night, and what is Madre Badessa's reaction?

9. Describe the scene when the taxi gets a flat tire.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

The Sixteen Pleasures could be said to be a "bildungsroman" of Margot. Discuss the following:

1. Define the concepts "bildungsroman" and "coming of age."

2. Thoroughly trace and analyze The Sixteen Pleasures as a bildungsroman of Margot. Give specific examples. What does Margot learn? How has she changed? Is the change for the better?

3. Thoroughly trace and analyze The Sixteen Pleasures as a psychological study. Give specific examples. What is Margot's emotional/psychological state at the beginning of The Sixteen Pleasures? At the end? What would a psychologist say about Margot's actions? Alessandro's actions? Discuss three other characters in addition to Margot and Alessandro in relation to their emotional/psychological characteristics.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the following:

1. What is a plot? What are the most important elements of a plot and their definition? Do all novels and short stories have a plot? Why or why not?

2. Write a brief synopsis of the plot of The Sixteen Pleasures, identifying where the various elements of the plot occur (Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution or denouement). Do you find it difficult to identify the plot? Why or why not? What about the various elements of the plot?

3. Identify the major sub-plots and their elements in The Sixteen Pleasures. (They may not contain every element of a major plot). Do the sub-plots add to the main plot? Why or why not. Are the sub-plots interesting in and of themselves? Why or why not.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,306 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample