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Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What happens to the temperature when light first appears?
2. What instrument does Mrs. Vhd Vhd play?
3. What simile does Qfwfq use to describe the conditions before the Big Bang, though he admits it's inaccurate?
4. How do the people on the moon get back to Earth, after the moon starts behaving strangely?
5. What do Ayl and her friends play ball with?
Short Essay Questions
1. When Qfwfq finally sees Ayl again, after the meteor flying overhead, how does he lure her away from her friends?
2. How does the Deaf One act while the moon is further away from the Earth?
3. How does Qfwfq react after he sees that his sign is obliterated?
4. What are Ayl and Qfwfq's attitudes toward difference and sameness?
5. How is Qfwfq and Pfwfp's final game resolved?
6. Describe Mrs. Ph(i)Nk_0.
7. What happens to the family and the planet after G'd(w)^n leaves?
8. Why does Qfwfq say that the sign is more important than its function of marking a place?
9. In the story, one of the characters accidentally floats up into the air. Describe how that character comes back down.
10. Describe the visualization that all the people in the point have of Mrs. Ph(i)nK_0 that leads to the Big Bang.
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Each story in COSMICOMICS is based on a snippet of information about science. Discuss the role of science in Calvino's stories.
1) How does the author choose the science information to base the stories on? Why are some of the science ideas and theories ones that have been disproved?
2) What role does science play in the stories themselves? Why does Calvino make his stories fantastical, and what relationship does the fantastical have to science?
3) What is Calvino's attitude toward science in COSMICOMICS?
Essay Topic 2
Throughout COSMICOMICS, characters generate ideas for the first time and do or conceive of things before the things themselves, or integral parts of those things, exist. Discuss these prototypes in COSMICOMICS.
1) How does Qfwfq think about the first sign? What is the significance of the sign being the "first"? How does this prototype differ from later signs?
2) How does the society in the point in "All at One Point" function as a prototype of later societies that will exist in the expanded universe?
3) How do the characters in "How Much Shall We Bet?" create a prototype of betting? How does betting change as the universe develops?
4) Why are there so many prototypes throughout COSMICOMICS? How are they related to each other and to the themes of the story collection?
Essay Topic 3
In science, future events are predicable, based on physical laws. From this standpoint of predictable physical laws, it's possible to argue that with enough information, every aspect of the world is fated and predictable. Explain the role that fate and predictability plays in COSMICOMICS and Calvino's point of view on predetermination.
1) How are physical events of the universe predictable in Calvino's stories, such as "How Much Shall We Bet?" and "Games without End"? How are characters in tune with nature and able to predict what will happen, including Qfwfq and the Deaf One, in various stories?
2) How predictable is human nature in Calvino's stories? What elements make human choice less predictable than physical laws?
3) What is Calvino's point of view on predetermination? Are the characters' lives fated, much as the formation of stars is fated?
This section contains 1,023 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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