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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 is a kirk?

2. What do the Norweigan sailors look like?

3. What do the men of Norday clean their pipes with?

4. Why are there no windows in a broch?

5. What language does Rolf Rolfson speak?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Jacob Olafson returns from his great adventure, what does he bring and what does he find?

2. What does the title of chapter 3 refer to?

3. Why does the author call the gathering at the Norday blacksmith shop "the village parliament?"

4. What is the scripture reading that the pastor from the Borders, Reverend Hector Drummond, saying?

5. What is the general opinion of Thorfinn in the village of Norday?

6. Why is the horse, Seamus, killed on the road to Stirling Castle?

7. What does the poorest man in Norday believe politically?

8. Why are the children bored on the field trip to the broch?

9. Why does the school teacher, Mr. Simon, have trouble paying for his groceries at the village shop in Norday?

10. When and where does Old Jacob Olafson die?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why do Sophie and Thorfinn return to the barren community of Norday Island? What does their return represent? What is George Makay Brown's message in their return? What is the place of the artist in the world?

Essay Topic 2

The theme of the disintegration of the broch is carried through chapter 4 from beginning to end. Write an essay on the image of the stones slowly falling into the ocean. Pick out all the examples of this through the chapter and explain the meaning of this symbolic destruction and loss of history, stone by stone.

Essay Topic 3

Looking at the historic imaginative stories, write an essay on the various time periods and major event which Thorfinn "brings to life" through his imagination and dreaming. Touch briefly on each episode and clearly identify the time period and major characters of the story.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 892 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample