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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 was Kate unable to see a police report on the items found on the beach the night of the plane crash?

2. For whom does John Corey work?

3. What job did the woman whom Marie interviewed at the Bayview do for the hotel?

4. What is the CIA's explanation for the hundreds of witness reports that claim to have seen the same thing?

5. What room in the Bayview Hotel does John request he be allowed to view in Chapter 25?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Kate being sent to Africa and why has she chosen Africa over an assignment in the United States?

2. Why does Dick Kearns tell John Corey to stay away from the TWA Flight 800 investigation?

3. Why does Kate suspect Koenig wants to see her the following morning and Steiner wants to see John?

4. How does Tom Spruck explain his theory when previous investigators have already ruled them out?

5. Why does Kate tell John she would like him to re-investigate the crash of TWA Flight 800?

6. What does Kate tell John about how she came to know about the police finding the blanket from Bayview Hotel on the beach the night of the crash?

7. For what purpose does John ask to see the personnel files of those employees who came into contact with the couple with the video camera? What does he find?

8. Why do John Corey and Kate Mayfield go to a memorial on the beach each year?

9. Where does John go after calling in sick to work and for what purpose?

10. What key evidence did the FBI hide from Marie Gubitosi while she was investigating the couple from the beach?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the setting of the novel. How does the time in which the novel is set predict the end of the novel? What impact could John's investigation have had on the attacks of September 11 had he not been sent to Yemen? Why does the author arrange the final meeting between John and Nash in the North Tower of the World Trade Center? How do the deaths of Nash and Koenig in the World Trade Center stop John from going public with all he knows about the crash of TWA Flight 800?

Essay Topic 2

Why does John dislike Nash? What does John believe the relationship is between Nash and his wife, Kate? How often does this suggestion come up throughout the novel? Who makes the suggestion? How does this knowledge affect John's behavior in dealing with these people? How does this situation affect John's relationship with his wife? Does John trust his wife? How does the reader know if John trusts his wife?

Essay Topic 3

In the end, everyone involved in the investigation dies except for John and Kate. How does this cause a credibility problem for John and Kate? Does John have a copy of the videotape? What happened to all the copies of the tape? What would John do with the tape if one still existed? Who might believe John without a tape and without a witness? What does this imply about the real story of the crash of TWA Flight 800? Is it possible John's story could be accurate? Why or why not?

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