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107 pages 3 hours read

Ken Liu

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2016

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Answer Key

Story 1: “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species”

Reading Check

1. Copper

Short Answer

2. They saw that the Caru’ee were using the stone brain for its intended purpose.

Story 2: “State Change”

Reading Check

3. A beech branch

Short Answer

4. The “state change” happens in a person when their soul takes on a new shape.

Story 3: “The Perfect Match”

Reading Check

5. “My Way” by Frank Sinatra

Short Answer

6. Centillion began ranking real estate listings based on users’ race.

Story 4: “Good Hunting”

Reading Check

7. Swallow Tail

Short Answer

8. As a member of an ethnic minority and a sex worker, she knows she will be powerless without him.

Story 5: “The Literomancer”

Reading Check

9. Autumn

Short Answer

10. A literomancer is someone who practices divination through letters and words.

Story 6: “Simulacrum”

Reading Check

11. Anna’s father Paul

Short Answer

12. Paul could have affairs with artificial women but not real living ones.

Story 7: “The Regular”

Reading Check

13. My Hong Kong, Your Hong Kong

14. Once per day

Short Answer

15. It leaves the impression of a wedding ring, which makes women feel safer.

Story 8: “The Paper Menagerie”

Reading Check

16. Star Wars action figures

Short Answer

17. He thinks that if she were more American, he would fit in better at school and stop being teased.

Story 9: “An Advanced Readers’ Picture Book of Comparative Cognition”

Reading Check

18. Food of the gods

Short Answer

19. Her parents taught her how to be fearless by surviving a life-threatening journey.

Story 10: “The Waves”

Reading Check

20. Ten years old

Short Answer

21. Immortality means that Earth will quickly become overpopulated, so they’ll need to move to other planets.

Story 11: “Mono no aware”

Reading Check

22. Spanish

Short Answer

23. Dr. Hamilton is in love with Hiroto’s mother and protects her son as a favor.

Story 12: “All the Flavors”

Reading Check

24. Nugget

25. Long Life

Short Answer

26. They find the idea barbaric because dogs are too close to being family friends.

27. She thinks they’re going to undermine the local laundresses with their cheap prices.

Story 13: “A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel”

Reading Check

28. Open up, sea

Short Answer

29. He wants to draw attention to racial segregation.

Story 14: “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King”

Reading Check

30. Confucius

Short Answer

31. The first character has a double meaning, which makes it sound like the royal family is uneducated.

Story 15: “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary”

Reading Check

32. He dies by suicide.

Short Answer

33. He felt it would give his work less credibility on an international scale.

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