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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 have the students behaved watching Moriyama paint?

2. What did Ono feel was missing the night he won the award?

3. Who dies in June, 1950?

4. Why does Ichiro say spinach is his favorite food?

5. Why does Ono admire Sugimura?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ono explain Naguchi's suicide to Ichiro?

2. The reader learns some news about Noriko at the same time Matsuda does. What is the news?

3. Ono recalls the influence of Moriyama on his own behavior. What does he say he adopted from his teacher?

4. How does Matsuda console himself when thinking of his actions during the war?

5. After re-establishing contact with Matsuda during Noriko's marriage negotiations, what contact have Ono and Matsuda had before Matsuda dies?

6. What European influences distinguished Moriyama's work from Utamaro's?

7. Why didn't Moriyama applaud his student's maturing talent as an artist?

8. What happened to Moriyama's best student, Sasaki?

9. Years ago, Matsuda had accused Ono of having a narrow artist's perspective. What does Ono say about his perspective now that he is retired?

10. What does Matsuda say the smell of burning most likely means now that the war is long over?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

We meet Taro Saito only briefly in this story, and yet Ishiguro establishes a clear personality for him through his actions and conversation. What do you know about Taro? How do you learn it? Analyze this character based on the information you have.

Essay Topic 2

Ishiguro devotes a great deal of description to the physical venues of Ono's city. Take the point of view of a reporter who is visiting the city to report on its postwar condition in 1948. As a reporter, what would you say about the parks? The homes? The pleasure district? If you returned in 1950, what would you report? Have there been significant changes? In your second paragraph, take the point of view of the same reporter returning after two years to observe the physical differences. What is still there? What is gone? What is there that wasn't before?

Essay Topic 3

We learn about Suichi's character through what he instructs Setsuko, what he wants for Ichiro, and the way he behaves when Kenji's ashes are brought home. Describe this young man based on textual evidence. Ono expresses the belief that Suichi has been "embittered." What embittered him?

(see the answer keys)

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