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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. Why does Casaubon move?

2. Lorenza has encounters with the occult through her association with what group?

3. How does Casaubon's relationship with Amparo end?

4. What is the name of Casaubon's Milanese neighbor?

5. What did the other two men present at the meeting call Aglie?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Casaubon and De Angelis discuss at their second meeting?

2. What offer does Casaubon receive from Belbo in Chapter 37?

3. How did Casaubon, Belbo and Diotallevi meet?

4. What is Aglie's response when Casaubon asks him why he associates himself with so many different occult practices?

5. How did the official end of the Knights Templar occur?

6. Why do Belbo, Diotallevi and Casaubon meet at Pilade's in Chapter 13?

7. How does Casaubon unlock Belbo's computer?

8. What is Project Hermes?

9. Why does Professor Bramanti meet with Mr. Garamond?

10. What were the origins of the Knights Templar?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the main characters' individual quests for knowledge and truth. How do Casaubon, Belbo and Diotallevi search for their version of the truth? What does each character, respectively, discover? What are the similarities and differences in each character's version of the truth? Be sure to cite specific examples from the text to support your thesis.

Essay Topic 2

The Knights Templar are one of the main occult groups presented in the novel. Why is so little known about them? Why are they so central to a variety of beliefs and traditions? Why are scholars so interested in them after so many centuries? What information presented regarding the Templars is fact, and what is speculation? Be sure to cite specific examples from the text to support your thesis.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of knowledge without understanding in the novel. How does the use of technology to accomplish some tasks diminish the significance of the result? How does each character feel about using computers and technology to perform certain tasks, such as permutations, and why? How does this theme, in the novel, reflect the increasing use of technology in modern society, and the author's attitude about it? Be sure to cite specific examples from the text to support your thesis.

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