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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 the narrator say people transported to the past fear?

2. What happens one month before the end of the world?

3. What do those of religious faith see time as evidence of?

4. Why will schools close a year before the end of the world?

5. What is curious about the town in the "10 May 1905" dream?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the untidy people of the 11 May 1905 world do in life?

2. What happens to travelers as they enter the world described in the 14 May 1905 dream?

3. How does Einstein's desk differ from the others in the patent office?

4. What happens when there is only one day until the end of the world?

5. Describe how the world is described in the 19 April 1905 dream.

6. What happens one month before the world ends?

7. Why do people in the 26 April 1905 dream choose to live in the mountains?

8. Why is there no communication between people of the present and people from the future? (16 April 1905)

9. Describe the people who live by "mechanical time."

10. At the end of the 26 April 1905 dream, what are the negative effects of living in the mountains?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

On the back of the novel, James Gleick is quoted for the novel saying, "No novelist, physicist, or philosopher has offered such a wonderful vision of what time has been or might be." What implication does this set up for the understanding of Einstein himself? What problems may this quote have for the author's intent of writing the novel? Why might Gleick's statement be misunderstood as negative towards Einstein and, therefore, the author himself? Cite specific examples from the text to support your responses.

Essay Topic 2

Choose a dream that would be the best and worst match for your life. Write a compare and contrast essay regarding why one best suits you and why the other does not. Cite specific examples from the text to support your responses.

Essay Topic 3

Salman Rushdie states that the novel is "intellectually provocative and touching and comical and so very beautifully written." (Dust cover quote-1993 edition by Pantheon Books, New York) What, from this quote, do you agree with? What do you disagree with? Based on your stand as a reader, support your belief with textual evidence. Cite specific examples from the text to support your responses.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,025 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample