View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. From which of the following does Nzinga note having relocated?

2. To which of the following does Armbruster compare Octavia?

3. Which of the following is the reported death toll from the attack on the mall?

4. Which of the following positions does Jan Galton-van Riebeeck hold in BEG?

5. In which of the following corners is Penny’s workplace at PHH?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator identify as “The problem with going to a grocery store when you’re the noncooking partner” (215)?

2. What does the narrator expect to hear from his father when he visits him in prison?

3. What reasons does the narrator give for disliking Araminta?

4. How does the narrator characterize his relationship with Nigel after having drugged him (261)?

5. How does the narrator report his father describing “permitting issues” (231)?

6. How does the narrator recall his first meeting with Penny?

7. What reasons are given for disbelief in ADZE’s complicity in the mall attack?

8. What image does the narrator report BEG uses to conceive of the United States?

9. What significance accrues to Armbruster signing a company that he and Octavia had worked on together?

10. What does the narrator find at Araminta’s house when he goes there in search of Nigel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What function does the narrator’s description of his grandfather (137) have in the novel? How is that function achieved?

Essay Topic 2

The narrator relates the following anecdote: “Last year one of the transactions shareholders had died cradling a telephone. No one noticed until Accounting came by to check his invoices. When they touched his shoulder, his body exhaled” (23-24). What does the brief anecdote indicate about the narrator’s company, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

At several points in the novel, mention is made of the peculiarity of having and enjoying paper books and documents. What is to be made of the repeated mention, based on the text, and why is it to be made thereof?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 678 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample