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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator see upon waking at the beginning of the book?
(a) Doctors all around.
(b) His house.
(c) Corpses all around.
(d) Main Street, USA.

2. Where does the narrator think that Tod Friendly finds Irene's love letters?
(a) In the drawer.
(b) In the fire.
(c) In the trash.
(d) In the mail.

3. What are conditions like in Italy when (in the narrator's experience) Hamilton de Souza lands there?
(a) Prosperity and contentment.
(b) Disarray and poverty.
(c) War and chaos.
(d) Industrialization and expansion.

4. When could John Young see stars in the city for first time?
(a) After cell phones disappeared from people's lives.
(b) After his black and white TV was replaced with a color TV.
(c) After industry had been increasing for some time.
(d) After there started to be more and more cars on the roads.

5. What does the man in the basement apartment say when John Young says, "You were expecting me, my name is John Young"?
(a) "I've been expecting you."
(b) "The weather is getting better, isn't it?"
(c) "Tod Friendly."
(d) "Do you have the money?"

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Odilo Unverdorben live most comfortably?

2. What does Tod Friendly dream about repeatedly?

3. What happens to Tod Friendly's body over time?

4. What seems to the narrator to make more sense backwards?

5. From whom does Tod Friendly get a letter every year?

Short Essay Questions

1. Is there any place where the narrator's understanding is more accurate than Tod Friendly's?

2. How does the narrator experience Tod's kindness to children?

3. Does Tod Friendly/John Young seem to be a good person?

4. Describe John Young's departure from Europe.

5. What condition is Europe in when Odilo Unverdorben leaves?

6. What happens when the Reverend Kreditor talks to John Young about stormy weather?

7. Can the reader sympathize with the narrator's sense of horror at John Young's work?

8. How does the narrator understand language?

9. What are some of the terms the narrator coins in order to make things make sense?

10. What is the narrator's relationship with Irene?

(see the answer keys)

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