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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. When Polo tells his tales while enjoying the evening breeze as he sits on a doorstep, what does he explain to Khan?

2. Polo explains that the city Khan dreams of with the farewells from its harbor has one secret. What is it?

3. Polo tells Khan that he feels this way about the things he saw in Hypatia:

4. Anastasia is described as being full of precious and mundane objects such as:

5. What does Polo see rising vertically in Armilla?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Khan react upon growing impatient with Polo's stories?

2. What does Polo not know about Armilla?

3. In what way are the people of Chloe connected to each other?

4. What is the significance of the evening breeze that Khan and Polo enjoy while conversing on the steps of the palace?

5. When Khan instructs Polo to find the city from his dreams that has a north-facing harbor from which ships regularly leave as the people ashore wave their last goodbyes, what does Polo say?

6. Why would you say the cities described by Polo in Chapter 3 have an especially dreamy quality about them?

7. What do the different models of the city of Fedora show?

8. Describe the gods in the two religions of Isaura.

9. What is it about Anastasia that it would make slaves of men?

10. What happens from time to time to the temporary part of the city of Sophronia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Towards the end of the book, Khan's confusion regarding the state of his cities grows.

Part 1) How does Polo use chess and strategy in an attempt to help Khan understand how cities rise and fall?

Part 2) How is Khan's confusion reflected in the confusion represented by the cities described in Polo's stories?

Part 3) Do the two main characters ever find their way out of the maze of confusion? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Which of the two characters, Khan or Polo, has a more realistic understanding of the state of the empire? Which would you say has a more hopeful view of the empire's future? Support your answers with examples from the story.

Essay Topic 3

Khan alternates between being pessimistic and being optimistic about his empire.

1) What concerns and hopes does Khan have about his empire? Cite specific examples.

2) How do Polo's stories fuel or soothe the emperor's worries and ambitions?

3) Seeing Khan at odds with himself, how does Polo use this opportunity to expand the emperor's understanding of the cities within his empire?

(see the answer keys)

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