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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. Why can't Danny meet with Professor Gordon?

2. Where is the setting at the opening of the Introduction?

3. To what time does a flashback go?

4. About whom does Michael fantasize?

5. What does Michael do that he is cheated out of?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Danny's father raise Danny?

2. What does Michael say about the universe when he is back home after the fair?

3. Describe the elderly man who is the father of the booth attendant at the dice game.

4. What does Michael tell Reuven about Michael's nosebleeds?

5. What do Reuven and Professor Gordon discuss about Michael?

6. Describe the neighborhood in which the narrator lives at the opening of the The Promise.

7. Describe Reuven and Michael's phone conversation.

8. Describe Reuven's visit with Danny.

9. What has Reuven's father completed during the Fall and early Winter?

10. How does the narrator's neighborhood change in the early 1950s?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In chapter 3, the narrator relates that Rav Kalman is a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp. Discuss the following:

1. Research and write a brief informative essay on the Nazi concentration camps of WWII. Why were they established? Who was sent to them? How many died there? How many survived? Offer your own thoughts about the concentration camps.

2. What sort of emotional and psychological damage do you think Rav Kalman could be suffering from as a result of having lived through the experience of a concentration camp?

3. Why do you think Rav Kalman came out of the camp with a still-firm faith in his God?

4. Do you think the concentration camp experience caused very many survivors to abandon their faith in God?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1. What do you think are the characteristics of a successful novel?

2. Analyze and discuss The Promise based upon the criteria you decide upon in #1 and judge if The Promise is a successful novel. Explain your rationale with specific examples.

3. Do you think the fact that The Promise deals with a very specific, narrow subject matter changes the criteria upon which its success should be judged? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Reuven asks his father about Kotzker, who it turns out is an eccentric rabbi who has shut himself up in a room for twenty years and has disagreements with many Hasidic sects.

Discuss the following:

1. Research the historical Kotzker Rebbe and write an informative essay on him and how the historical facts match up with what is said in The Promise.

2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a scholar isolating himself for twenty years.

3. Can you ever think of a reason you would isolate yourself for twenty years?

4. Relate the anecdote about Kotzker Rebbe to the theme of silence in the Promise. What other situations are related to the theme of silence? Who tries to silence other? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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