View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. After Tina Lyde is chased off by Thorfinn's sister in chapter 6 what does Tina do?

2. How many rooms does the laird's Hall have?

3. What are the names of Mr. Harcourt-Smither's granddaughters?

4. What is a croft?

5. How does Thorfinn deal with the tension in his family in chapter 6?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Major Schneider?

2. How does Thorfinn see Sophie that very first time?

3. Why did the hippies finally leave Norday Island?

4. Why was the present laird, Mr. Harcourt-Smithers, so much poorer than his forefathers?

5. In chapter five one of the previous minister uses the title of the book when referring to fossils. What does he mean?

6. What kind of food does Mara the seal wife like to eat?

7. Why does the seal girl, Mara, not follow the seal-people into the sea?

8. What does Thomas Vass think about the arrival of work crews and machinery on Norday Island during the war?

9. Why was Mistress Ragnarson not afraid to catch consumption from her son Thorfinn (in chapter 6)?

10. How is the story Mr. Simon is telling the class (early in chapter 5) relevant to the fantasy sequence in which Thorfinn marries a seal wife?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the themes in "The Song of the Broch." What is the overall image that Thorfinn creates? How is that image carried through in the chapter as a whole? What is the overall feeling and tone of the song? How is writing song lyrics different from telling a story through narrative or prose?

Essay Topic 2

The style of writing a story within a story is somewhat unique. What does this literary device allow the author to reveal about his main character, Thorfinn? Why doesn't he simply write a book of imaginative stories? How is this double layer of reality different? How does it affect the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay on the idea of a muse, in both ancient Greek literature and here, in chapter 5. How does Sophie function as a muse? Find one example of an ancient Greek muse and compare her to that example.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 907 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample