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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. How does Peronella explain the man who is in the barrel?

2. What happens when Brother Onion reaches into the box supposedly containing Gabriel's feather?

3. What does Monna Giovanna determine to do?

4. Who are Don Gianni di Barolo and Pietro da Tresanti?

5. What is Rabatta's profession?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. When Calandrino finds what he thinks are magic rocks, what do Bruno and Buffalmacco decide to do.

4. What does the daughter of Messer Lizio di Valbona, a rich knight, do that her father knows nothing about?

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

6. How does Calandrino learn that the magic has gone out of the rocks?

7. Although Frederigo would give anything to Monna Giovanna, why is it impossible for him to give her the falcon?

8. What is the result of a man sneaking into an Abbess' cell after he has fallen in love with her?

9. What happens that Don Gianni declares has broken the spell to change Pietro's wife into a mare?

10. How does the nun know that the abbess cannot punish her?

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, Man's Desire to Return from the Dead. In your essay point out that one reason for returning from the dead is to tell the living what it is like on the other side. Compare the pact made by Tingoccio Mini and Meuccio di Tura with the Twentieth Century magician, Harry Houdini who made a similar promise. Conclude with the fact that there is no evidence that anyone has ever succeeded in this return.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, Medical Pandemics Through the Ages. In your essay describe the Black Death that swept Europe in the Middle Ages and why it lasted so long. Then discuss pandemics of more modern times such as polio and various virulent strains of the flu. Conclude with how these plagues affect the human psyche.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typewritten, double spaced pages on the topic, the device Boccaccio uses in the character of Dioneo tell the tenth tale every evening. Discuss this literary device in terms of transition and keeping the story flowing in the form of the novel. Conclude with the element of suspense that this device brings to THE DECAMERON making the reader want to read on.

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This section contains 798 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample