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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 does Sophie look like when the narrator first encounters her in the refugee camp?

2. What does the narrator of "Future Emergencies" discover a few weeks after the emergency?

3. What impresses Shlomi about "the husband" that he tells Tamar during their first phone conversation about him?

4. What color are Sophie's eyes in the story "Amour"?

5. What does the man who visits Tamar's mother tell Tamar's mother about his own family?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the ultimate reason the authorities give for distributing gas masks?

2. What prompts the narrator to get back in touch with Romi again after many years of not communicating?

3. What annoys Tamar about Ilana's story about how she met Sandor?

4. What is the narrator's reaction when she thinks she sees the actor Ershadi in real life?

5. What does Romi do to help the narrator when the narrator is in a crisis?

6. Why does the narrator think the person she passes on the street who is wearing a gas mask is wearing the mask at the end of "Future Emergencies"?

7. What does Victor do to try to prepare for whatever disaster may befall them in the story "Future Emergencies"?

8. What irrational thought does the narrator have as she tries to catch up with Ershadi in the Zen garden?

9. In the story "The Husband," how does Tamar's mother Ilana meet "the husband," Sandor?

10. What do the generals persuade the landscape architect to do in the story "In the Garden?"

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does the unnamed narrator in the story "I Am Asleep but My Heart Is Awake" become so intrigued by Boaz, and what does this feeling on the part of the narrator seem to reveal about her relationship to her deceased father? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think Krauss has chosen to leave so many of her narrators and main characters unnamed? How does this choice affect a reader's experience of the collection? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

How would you describe the unnamed narrator's feelings about the famous landscape architect's interactions with the generals in the story "In the Garden," which result in the generals using one of the architect's gardens to bury bodies of executed prisoners in? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 806 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample