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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. Who is Ni Fenglin?

2. What does the letter that Hong delivers say?

3. What does the ship do in its next port?

4. Who is Yao?

5. What is Chen offered after his examinations?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Hong goes to deliver his letter from Ye Pan?

2. What does Hong tell the pirates about the letters he carries?

3. Where does Hong go when he escapes the pirates and who helps him?

4. What does Hong decide to do after Chen takes a position and what does Sun Qi give Hong?

5. What do the river pirates do when they board the boat?

6. Why do the brothers stop in Qufu and who do they meet there? What does he ask them to do?

7. How is Hong going to get a message from Tang Wangai?

8. What happens when Chen is invited out by three other scholars?

9. What happens with Hong after he receives the message from Tang?

10. How far do the brothers take the Grand Canal, and what are they told at the end of it? What do they decide to do about the information?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Most protagonists are a mixture of admirable traits and character flaws, and Lao Chen is no exception. Discuss the following:

1. Trace and analyze situations when Chen demonstrates his prodigious powers intellect. Give specific examples to illustrate your analysis.

2. Trace and analyze Chen's character flaws offering specific examples of these flaws in your discussion.

3. Discuss how you think Chen's admirable traits helped him obtain a high position in the government despite his background as a child. Have his flaws impacted his career at all? Do any of those around him seem to notice these flaws? Who? How does the reader know this?

Essay Topic 2

Women are not equals with men in China in the 12th century. Discuss the following:

1. Define the term "gender."

2. Discuss the Chinese cultural definitions of gender gender during the era of "The Examination" and the expectations for each gender. Do any of those expectations exist today?

3. Would you like to live in a culture that has those expectations for men and women that are revealed in "The Examination"? Discuss fully with examples from the text.

4. Are women the only ones harmed by gender-based expectations? Why or why not.

Essay Topic 3

The scholars are asked to write on a single question, supposedly composed by the emperor himself. The question is "What does 'good' mean in the social order?" Chen is torn, because his own personal experiences seem to conflict with what he has learned through scholarship. He begins to write about his own experiences from his journey, but changes his mind and composes an essay on what makes a good leader.

1. Why do you think Chen's experience on his journey might conflict with his academic knowledge? Use examples from the text to support your answer.

2. Why do you think Chen's experiences might be a good answer to the question about good? Use examples from the text to support your answer.

3. What influence do you think a good leader has on social order? Use examples from the text to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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