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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. Where is Joanna born?

2. What seems to match completely?

3. What do Alex and Joanna do before going through the Chelgrin file?

4. Why is Kennedy refusing medical assistance?

5. What does Joanna tell Alex about the dream?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Mariko tell Alex about Joanna and men?

2. What does Joanna do in response to her depression and her decision to push Alex away?

3. How does Joanna wake from her recurring nightmare? How often does she have it and why do you think she will not do anything about it?

4. What does Mariko encourage Alex to do and why?

5. What does Alex show Joanna and how does she feel about it?

6. Describe what happens in Joanna's session with Inamura.

7. Emotionally, how might the reader respond to the malice Carrera seems to carry?

8. What evidence does Joanna show Alex and what does he do with it?

9. Why does Joanna run from Nijo Castle and what does she do after she gets outside?

10. What nightmare awakens Joanna at the beginning of the novel and what does she do when she gets up?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Alex is clearly smitten with Joanna, and when he asks her to have lunch with him, it makes it seem to the reader that a romance might be in the air, touching on one of the themes of the novel.

1. Discuss what evidence you have seen thus far of romance being one of the themes in this book. Use examples from the book to illustrate your answer.

2. Alex has watched Joanna on stage for a few nights and is "smitten" with her. Does this seem realistic? Why or why not?

3. Alex being smitten with Joanna would seem to be like someone falling for an actor or actress in a movie. Are they falling for a real person or the person that is being portrayed in the part? Discuss this concept with examples to support your opinion.

Essay Topic 2

Joanna is plagued by a recurring nightmare in which a man with a mechanical hand uses a hypodermic needle to do something unclear to her. Joanna always wakes from this dream in the grip of a panic. It seems Joanna is uninterested in learning the truth about the dream, perhaps afraid of finding out something she does not want to know.

1. Why do you think Joanna doesn't want to find out the cause of her nightmares? Use examples from the text and your own thoughts to support your answer.

2. Do you think nightmares always have a cause? Why or why not?

3. Describe a recurring nightmare you or someone you know has had. Compare it to Joanna's. How do you or the person having the nightmare deal with it?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one of the character pairs below to compare and contrast. Include in the essay a comparison of their personalities, their values and morals, how they view the world, what good and bad exist in each that are the same and different and how they behave in the situations in the book.

1. Joanna and Lisa Chelgrin.

2. Joanna and Mariko.

3. Alex and Carrera.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,073 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample