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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 do the members of the expedition find on the walls of the tunnel?

2. What happens to the biologist when she gets too close to the words on the wall?

3. Who does not go into the tunnel during the first exploration?

4. Which member of the expedition has had the most weapons training?

5. Where does the biologist expect to find the psychologist in 02: Integration?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator react when she first realizes that the psychologist is issuing a hypnotic command to which she is immune?

2. What does the biologist notice first about the tunnel the second time she enters it?

3. In "Initiation," what does the Biologist say happened to the members of the last expedition?

4. How do the members of the expedition celebrate after their first exploration of the structure made from coquina and stone?

5. What is the mission of the 12th expedition into Area X?

6. What are the members of the 12th expedition told to do with their journals?

7. What new precaution does the psychologist announce in "Initiation," on the narrator's recommendation?

8. What happens when the members of the expedition call back to the low moaning sound that comes from Area X at dusk?

9. What discovery frightens the biologist and the surveyor within the tower in 02: Integration?

10. What comparison does the narrator make between the ocean air and the air back home in "Initiation"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Much focus is placed on the mysterious words that appear on the wall of the Tower, which the novel's characters describe as sounding biblical. Write an essay analyzing the rhetorical style of these words and create a thesis that supports or denies that they are biblical in nature. Conclude the essay by analyzing what role, if any, religion has in this text.

Essay Topic 2

At the conclusion of the novel, the biologist decides to follow her husband's footsteps, explaining that she does not need to find him but that she does need "to see what he saw" (194). How is this scene representative of their marriage?

Essay Topic 3

The Biologist is infected by something in Area X. She changes throughout the text due to this infection and begins to refer to her infection as "brightness." Does this infection make her more or less human? In other words, does Area X have a positive or negative effect on her?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 644 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample