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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 Mr. Abernethy passionately against?

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

3. Where does Thorfinn spend most of the war?

4. What has Thorfinn come back from the war to find in Norday?

5. What is the present Mr. Harcourt-Smithers known for?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. According to chapter 5, how did the lairds of old manage to be so wealthy?

3. Who was Revd Hector Drummond and what was he like?

4. What did Winnie Swona do when some of her hens disappeared from the henhouse during the aerodrome building?

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

6. What does Thorfinn find when he goes, after many long years, back to the loft where he had locked up Mara's seal skin?

7. What is a press gang?

8. In chapter 6, what is Elphinstone's role in rounding up the young men for military service?

9. When the workmen are sent to build the aerodrome on Norday Island they are quite unhappy. What cheers them up?

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

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

Write a detailed character study of Jacob Olafson. Why is he in the book? What does he represent in terms of Thorfinn's journey? What is he representative of in terms of the book and its overall theme?

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)

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