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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. What does Marco do with the demon, despite Kin's suggestion?

2. What do some of the characters come to suspect about the flat planet soon after rescuing Kin?

3. With regards to Silver's impending madness, what course of action does Kin initially suggest?

4. What sort of person is asked to act as a negotiator for the barter that takes place between the explorers and the man they meet in the desert?

5. What does Kin take with her from her hiding place?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is unusual about the stars seen from the flat planet?

2. What causes the brawl in the Great Hall?

3. What happens to Silver as she and the others near the hub?

4. Whom do Kin and the others meet in the desert? What is the result of this meeting?

5. Why does Kin refuse to believe that the Company could have created the flat planet?

6. What is Marco's plan, and what do Kin and Silver think about it?

7. What do the explorers come to believe about the machinery of the planet?

8. What does the group discover at the ship's crash-site?

9. How does Kin escape after the man whom she and the others meet in the desert turns on them?

10. How is Kin rescued, and what do the characters think about the manner or her rescue?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The concept of loyalty is important in the story. It affects Kin most of all, since she has immense loyalty to the Company and has reasons to begin questioning them.

Part 1) What is the nature of loyalty, and how is it seen in this book? How do the characters develop loyalty?

Part 2) How and why do characters betray or question their loyalty?

Part 3) What important roles does loyalty play in the storyline? What does it illustrate about the characters that it affects? How would the book be different and potentially less interesting if these complex loyalties were not present, or did not develop?

Essay Topic 2

After they crash on the flat planet, Kin and the others interact with its inhabitants in many places and in many different ways. These people, as rough analogues of real historical cultures, serve to illustrate various points that the author wishes to make about those civilizations.

Part 1) Describe the first meeting between the inhabitants of the flat planet and Kin and her companions. What are the results of this exchange? What impression do Kin and the other take away from this experience?

Part 2) Explain the other interactions the explorers have with the locals. How do these compare with their first interactions? Explain ways that the explorer's perceptions of the locals change as a result of later encounters.

Part 3) What impact do the explorers have on the local populations? Explain both immediate and long lasting effects.

Essay Topic 3

Exploration is a major theme of the novel. Alongside creation, it is presented as one of the defining characteristics of intelligence species. Exploration initiates and ends the story.

Part 1) Outline the importance of exploration in the novel. In what ways does it affect the storyline?

Part 2) Which characters are affected by the drive for exploration? Does it have a positive or negative impact on them?

Part 3) How is the drive for exploration presented as an important feature of intelligent life?

Part 4) How does exploration in this story relate to the concept of creation?

(see the answer keys)

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