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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. How does Abdel Jabari confuse the attackers?

2. What does Ahmed Rish think is the advantage the gods have sent the attackers?

3. What does Major Bartok find ironic about Isaac Burg's account of the incident?

4. What does Samuel Bartok offer to do regardless of whether the rescue mission succeeds?

5. Why is the language similarity between Hebrew and Arabic ironic?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the guard recognize that Benjamin Dobkin is not an Ashbal?

2. What is Peter Kahn's biggest concern throughout the ordeal?

3. To what does Major Bartok eventually attribute the successful defense of Concorde 02?

4. How have the attackers improved their tactics for the second attack?

5. Why does Dr. Al-Thanni recommend that Joshua Giddel make no attempt to rescue Benjamin Dobkin?

6. What advantages does the Sherji, the hot desert wind, give to the attackers?

7. Why does Dr. Al-Thanni remind Joshua Giddel of Archimedes?

8. To what do the prophet Jeremiah - and the author, Nelson DeMille - credit the successful freeing of the Babylonian captives?

9. What incentives do the young Ashbal fighters have that they did not have during the first attack?

10. Why do Jacob Hausner and Nathan Burg conclude that the conduct of a war is too important to be left to politicians?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Transformation is a theme in this story. Many characters undergo significant changes. In your essay, select two characters (apart from Jacob Hausner and Miriam Bernstein) who are not the same in the return flight as they were when the story began. Discuss the causes and effects of the changes they have undergone.

Essay Topic 2

What do you make of the fact that even hardened warriors like Jacob Hausner can quote from the Talmud by heart or that even a villain like Ahmed Rish believes in the ancient Babylonian god of wind and death? In your essay, discuss the effect of belonging to an ancient civilization on the modern characters in this story.

Essay Topic 3

The Pazuzu is a powerful symbol in this story, representing different things to different people. In your essay, analyze its significance to the Arab attackers, to Benjamin Dobkin, and to Rabbi Levin. Whose understanding of the Pazuzu turns out to be more accurate?

(see the answer keys)

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