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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 word from Chapter 14, "Red Coast IV" means having mixed feelings about something or someone?

2. Ye Wenjie claims that the Red Coast Project failed to establish contact with alien life forms and disbanded after how many years?

3. Ye Wenjie discovers in college that it is useless to excel at theory without what in astrophysics?

4. Who is Ye Zhetai's wife in the narrative?

5. For what publication is Bai Mulin a reporter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ye Wenjie remark about potential alien contact in Chapter 14, "Red Coast IV"?

2. What setting is established in Chapter 9, "The Universe Flickers"? How is it described?

3. What setting is established in Chapter 2, "Silent Spring"? What has brought Ye Wenjie to this location?

4. What setting is established in Chapter 4, “The Frontiers of Science"? How much time has passed as Part II: "Three-Body" begins?

5. Why does Ye Wenjie arrange for Wang to meet Sha Ruishan in Chapter 8, “Ye Wenjie”?

6. What imagery is described when Wang looks at the sky using the 3K glasses in Chapter 9, "The Universe Flickers"?

7. What happens when the Stable Era begins in the Three Body game in Chapter 11, "Three Body: Mozi and Fiery Flames"?

8. Who is Shao Lin and what is revealed about her character in Chapter 1, "The Madness Years"?

9. What is the significance of the literary allusions to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in the novel?

10. What has happened to Ye Wenjie's daughter in the novel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the events surrounding the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China. What led up to the revolution? What events of the revolution does the author describe in the beginning of the novel? How do these events set the mood for the story?

Essay Topic 2

Why is Ye Wenjie taken to the Red Coast Base? What leads her to work at the base? What kind of work does she do on the base?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's exploration of history in The Three-Body Problem. What are some historical figures that appear in the novel? Why do they appear? How is history explored thematically?

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