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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 Julius say his study at the hospital shows a correlation between?

2. What was Julius’ friend Dr. Saito’s field of study?

3. What does Julius not end up having to tell the woman he has sex with in Brussels?

4. What is Julius’ stance on global warming?

5. What does Dr. Maillotte, Julius’ seat partner, envy about Julius?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Julius describe his encounter with the Czechoslovakian tourist he meets in the café?

2. Who does Julius imagine he sees, as he enters Brussels?

3. What does Julius contemplate doing when he thinks about his patient, M., at the boat basin behind the World Financial Center?

4. What is the feeling Julius wakes up from his dream with, in the beginning of Chapter 10, in his first days in Brussels?

5. What does Nadège’s limp make Julius think about, and what does it make him see about Nadège?

6. What is it about Coca-Cola that the younger Julius found so appealing?

7. How does Julius react to the waitress who brings him his coffee in the café in Grand Sablon?

8. How does Julius explain his split with Nadège?

9. What made the detained immigrant Saidu leave Liberia?

10. What is the style of the opening pages of Open City, and what kind of expectation do they set up in the reader?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate your own reading of Open City—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

Essay Topic 2

Evaluate the ending of Open City. Does it ring true to you? Does it successfully resolve the problems and tensions that preceded it? What would you change, if anything? What are you left wishing for closure on, if anything?

Essay Topic 3

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

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