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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 are Noa's parents?

2. How does the businessman give Soraya his room number when they first meet?

3. Who is the person who comes unannounced to the narrator's father's apartment?

4. What does Noa do with her coworker as they wait at the bride's house for their boss?

5. What is threatening the area where Noa lives?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator do for a living in the story "I Am Asleep but My Heart is Awake" and how does she feel about her work?

2. Why is the narrator of "Switzerland" so transfixed by Soraya?

3. What does the narrator initially think of Boaz when he shows up unexpectedly at her father's apartment?

4. Why does Brodman take his infant grandson to the roof at the end of the story?

5. What is one major thing that surprises the narrator in the story "I Am Asleep but My Heart is Awake" after her father's death?

6. How and to whom does Noa lose her virginity?

7. Who, shockingly, reminds the narrator of "Switzerland" of Soraya decades after they have lived together, and how does this person remind her of Soraya?

8. As an elderly man, what is Brodman's own assessment of the job he did as a father to two daughters?

9. What is one major aspect of Leonard's and Monica's divorce that bothers Noa in the story "End Days?"

10. What is the narrator's strange dream in the beginning of the story "I Am Asleep but My Heart is Awake"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What connections does Krauss draw between illness, death, rebirth, and renewal in the story "Zusya on the Roof"? How has Brodman's character changed in significant ways from the beginning of the story to the end? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

Krauss chooses two settings repeatedly but not exclusively for the stories in this collection - Israel and New York. Write an essay exploring Krauss's descriptions and the characters' feelings towards these two places, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Why do you think Krauss has chosen to leave so many of her narrators and main characters unnamed? How does this choice affect a reader's experience of the collection? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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