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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 festival was being celebrated as Theroux arrived in Calcutta in Chapter 16?

2. What happened when Theroux saw the drunk Japanese men in the bar in Osaka?

3. Where did Bernard tell Theroux he was born?

4. What term described the total work stoppage organized by the Socialist Unity Centre in Chapter 16?

5. What was the surname of the local USIS official in Hue?

Short Essay Questions

1. How was the American woman living in Sapporo welcomed into the Japanese fold in the story retold in Chapter 27?

2. Why did Theroux say that the Malay smile was misleading?

3. Describe Theroux's visit to the tourism office in Vietnam.

4. What was Theroux's reaction to the sight of the Goktiek Viaduct?

5. What common prostitution story did Theroux hear numerous times during his travels and how did the story told in Laos differ?

6. How did Mr. Bernard treat Theroux at his mansion in maymyo?

7. Why did Theroux describe the Burmese government as a Buddhist bureaucracy?

8. What did Theroux find disturbing about Osaka?

9. How did Colonel Tuan believe Vietnamese viewed Americans as the war wound down?

10. Describe the Japanese obsession with the high cost of living in Japan.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In contrast to his discussions with the Bangladeshi family planning experts, Theroux discovered that in the Soviet Union, efforts were underway to increase the population due to a declining birth rate. Many European nations today are experiencing declining birth rates, while poorer countries in Asia and Africa are expanding rapidly. How do nations determine what is an appropriate or manageable population? Is it possible to control how individuals plan their families? Why do poor nations have such high birth rates while nations that can better afford to feed and house their populations have low birth rates? Which comes first--poverty or high birth rates?

Essay Topic 2

Yashar Kemal, the Marxist highly critical of the Soviet Union, was full of contradictions, according to Theroux. The author's traveling companion, Molesworth, commented that the Turks lacked character because they were neutral during World War II. Would the inability of a nation to take sides during that pivotal and generation-defining war affect the nation's character? What other nations were neutral during WWII? What impact, if any, did that have on their cultural development later on? Does neutrality lead to dullness or vice versa? Did Theroux seem to find the Turks dull?

Essay Topic 3

Theroux encountered phenomenal levels of censorship in Singapore. How did the strong central government control of people's lives affect their personalities? Do you think the control caused the Singaporeans to be rude and aggressive, as Theroux found them to be? Or did their traditional behavior simply make it easier for the government to control them? Theroux wrote that freedom would be threatened by the Singaporean focus on connecting everyone electronically. How do you think Theroux would view the Internet? Has his concern about reduced freedoms come true or have people been able to avoid government control despite the impact of computers?

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