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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 happens when Ricciardo learns of Caterina's love for him?

2. How do Gualtieri and his wife get back together?

3. What story does Gianni tell to excuse himself from taking Pietro's bed that night?

4. When Don Gianni visit the house of the poor Pietro da Tresanti, what is the situation?

5. When Gualtieri finally marries, what does he decide to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. What unusual thing causes Peronella and her lover to look for a place to hide him?

2. How are Caterina and Ricciardo found out?

3. How does the affair between Caterina and Ricciardo work itself out?

4. Besides his homely countenance, describe what Messer Forese da Rabatta is noted for.

5. What plan does Caterina devise in order to be with Ricciardo?

6. How does Peronella turn the situation around and get her husband inside the barrel.

7. Explain how Peronella gets away with having a lover.

8. When two of Brother Onion's friends see him in the village proclaiming he will show a feather from the angel Gabriel, what do they plan to do?

9. Why do several nuns come to the Abbess' door in the middle of the night?

10. When Monna Giovanna's son becomes seriously ill, what does he tell her might make him better?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, Sexuality in THE DECAMERON. Select three examples of sexual behavior related in the tales told in THE DECAMERON. Discuss the manner in which these are presented made quite clear without going into graphic detail.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, Why Story Telling is Becoming a Lost Art. Begin with the modern media today that involves being spoon fed stories in visual and interactive formats. Discuss the fact that people no longer sit together and relate tales they have made up or have heard. Speculate how different the situation of THE DECAMERON would have been if all the people in the group had iPods and PCs.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, THE DECAMERON as an Early Example of the Modern Novel. In your essay point out how THE DECAMERON predates Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES which is often credited as being the first modern novel. Discuss the format of THE DECAMERON and how you think it qualifies as a novel.

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