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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 Demon die?

2. What phrase does Ana use repetitively throughout her first communication with Van?

3. Why have the Robinsons given Lucette some medicine?

4. What is Van doing while he stays at Cordula's?

5. What is Cordula doing the first time Van tries to walk on his hands after his injury?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Van gain the post of Rattner Chair of Philosophy at University of Kingston?

2. What is Cordula's conversation like?

3. What plan does Lucette propose to Van?

4. How does Van characterize to Greg his relationship with Ada?

5. What does Van do after leaving Demon?

6. How does Van remember his three farewell lectures on Bergson's Time?

7. How does Demon discover that Van is living with Ada?

8. What does Cordula tell Van about Vanda Broom?

9. What tragedy happened at the Villa Venus in Souvenir, Missouri?

10. What does Van plan to do in the duel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Terra and Antiterra in the novel.

1) Why does the author set the novel in an alternative reality, an "Antiterra"? What role does the imaginary planet, a mirror of our "real" world, play in the novel?

2) How do the characters envision Terra? What do their perceptions of Terra show about the characters themselves?

3) How do Terra and Antiterra differ? Compare the two worlds of the novel.

Essay Topic 2

As Van's memoir, the novel deals with memory. It also deals with memory through Van's discussion of time and its meaning. Discuss time and memory in the novel.

1) How is the story of Van and Ada's childhood changed by memory? What significance is there to the fact that the children's diaries were destroyed, forcing them to recreate the events from memory?

2) What role does memory plan in Van and Ada's feelings about each other why they are separated?

3) How does time affect the characters? How does Van's discussion of time relate to the characters' experiences?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the relationships between parents and children in the novel.

1) How does Van relate to Aqua? How does he relate to Demon? How does he relate to Marina? What does he get from each of these parental figures, and how do they affect him?

2) How does Marina relate to Ada and Lucette? How does she influence them? Compare her influence to the influence of the governess.

3) What influence does Dan have as a parent? How do Lucette and Ada relate to him?

(see the answer keys)

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