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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 is the language of the majority on Santa Rosalia?

2. What nickname does Mary Hepburn give to the Bahia?

3. After the Bahia is raided, what is the Captain still in possession of?

4. What doubt does Mary Hepburn have that leads her to take action to get a Kanka-bono girl pregnant?

5. Who is Kamikaze?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to Kazakh in Chapter 31?

2. Why is the Bahia considered to be a ghost ship in the opinion of humankind?

3. How is the Bahia married to the South American mainland?

4. In Book 2: Chapter 12, what does the narrator suggest as a means for Mary Hepburn to keep on living with the Captain for a little while longer?

5. Why does Mary Hepburn like James Wait immediately?

6. What does the cancellation of "the Nature Cruise of the Century" mean to everyone in the bus in front of the Hotel El Dorado?

7. Why does Siegfried von Kleist dance in Chapter 37?

8. What is the launching of Reyes's missile compared to in Chapter 34?

9. How many times has the narrator seen the blue tunnel in to the Afterlife? Where has he seen it appear?

10. What does the narrator say after the death of Kazakh and James Wait? Why does he say this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The New York Times Book Review claims that "Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain." Do you agree with this statement? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

How are the blue-footed boobies in the novel symbolic? Why do you think the author puts such an emphasis on the blue-footed boobies? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

In Book 1: Chapter 2, the narrator sees the blind Selena as an "experiment by Nature." Explain what the narrator means by an "experiment by Nature." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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