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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. The unnamed narrator asserts that she and her dark-haired friend both loathed what element of life, even as they "understood its necessity" (48)?
(a) Vulnerability.
(b) Affection.
(c) Intimacy.
(d) Trust.

2. At the end of the section entitled San Francisco 2010, the unnamed narrator recalls having forgotten that her dark-haired friend had eyes of what color?
(a) Blue.
(b) Green.
(c) Hazel.
(d) Brown.

3. The unnamed narrator reveals that she has been married how many times in her life?
(a) 2.
(b) 1.
(c) 4.
(d) 3.

4. What transgression did the unnamed narrator commit during the time she was trying to conceive a child with her husband?
(a) She gossiped.
(b) She cheated.
(c) She lied.
(d) She stole.

5. What was happening in the unnamed narrator's life when her newly-divorced friend Laura moved in with the unnamed narrator's parents?
(a) She was trying to have a baby with her husband.
(b) She and her husband were selling their home.
(c) She was trying to get a new job.
(d) She was going to college.

Short Answer Questions

1. Artemisia told the unnamed narrator that she attended which college at the time she dated Virgilio?

2. The unnamed narrator reveals what detail about her only child in the section entitled Los Angeles, 2011?

3. From what country did the artist featured in San Francisco, 2010 originally hail?

4. The first section of the novel Topics of Conversation is set in which month of 2000?

5. On the wall of the unnamed narrator's childhood home, there is a tabloid clipping picturing which of her family members "on the arm of Rudolph Valentino" (55)?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what reason did the unnamed narrator see little of Camila during the trip to Italy?

2. Describe the four characters featured at the center of the gathering in Ann Arbor, 2002.

3. Discuss an instance when Popkey uses the second person point of view to connect with the reader.

4. For what reason was the narrator in Italy in the summer of 2000?

5. How did the unnamed narrator feel about the dissolution of Laura's marriage?

6. For what reason does the unnamed narrator use a hedge maze as a metaphor for Artemisia's life?

7. What distinction does the unnamed narrator make between "the woman as object" and "the woman as subject" (45)?

8. What emotion does the unnamed narrator name as one that is difficult for women to express?

9. How did the unnamed narrator view Artemisia during the trip to Italy in 2000 and why?

10. What was the subject of the Swedish artist's creations, according to the unnnamed narrator?

(see the answer keys)

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