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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. How does Jonathan characterize the Topeka Foundation?

2. Where was Jane giving a lecture when her friendship with Sima fell apart?

3. Who does Jane say was the first person to get her see the knowledge she might have been hiding from herself?

4. How did Darren believe he acquired magic powers?

5. How long does the narrator say it will take Adam to see the connection between Amber’s story and her actions?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator characterize Adam’s role in the debate team?

2. What did Jonathan find captivating about the Duccio Madonna and Child painting in the Met?

3. What importance did Jonathan’s therapist attach to his interest in the Ziegler story?

4. What is the story Amber told Adam in the car after they reconnected?

5. Where is Darren’s refuge, and what solace does he take there?

6. How does the narrator describe the importance of the spread beyond debate?

7. What significance does Darren attribute to the paper banner cheerleaders hold up for the football team to run through?

8. What was it that the Foundation community found humorous when Jonathan screened the film he made of the Ziegler story?

9. What was the memory Sima helped Jane uncover?

10. What was Darren’s job, and how did he lose it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Who is the audience for The Topeka School? What is the ideal reader for The Topeka School likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is this book trying to teach its reader?

Essay Topic 2

In what way is The Topeka School a bildungsroman (or kunstlerroman)? What are the stages of maturation it narrates? How does the novel draw a distinction between developmental stages, and how does it move characters from one stage to another?

Essay Topic 3

In what way does The Topeka School serve as equipment for living? How does it help you evaluate claims in the real world, and make decisions? What kinds of decisions would this book likely help you make?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,043 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample