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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 role does Shear-jashub say Jews in Babylon have played in history?

2. Why does Teddy Laskov forbid David Becker to move the Concorde?

3. What information does Ahmed Rish give Jacob Hausner?

4. Which colorful character's end is not known, so that he might turn up again in another DeMille novel?

5. What does Moshe Kaplan's sacrifice accomplish?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why does Nathan Burg veto the idea of attempting an escape at night?

4. What is the purpose of Ibrahim Arif's taunting of Salem Hamadi?

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 Miriam Bernstein believe the role of the scribe is so important?

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

9. Why does Miriam Bernstein believe that Jacob Hausner wanted to stay behind?

10. How and when was Jeremiah's prophecy fulfilled that said, "The sea shall come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

The Diaspora - the scattering of captive Jews throughout different lands as a result of captivity - has a strong effect on Jews in Israel as well as on those who are themselves scattered. In your essay, discuss the effect on this story of the Jews in the Iraqi Ummah.

Essay Topic 3

Masada is important both as a cautionary tale and as a plan for the trapped defenders. Research the happenings at Masada and write an essay explaining its similarities and differences to the fictional situation in this story, and its importance in the minds of the characters.

(see the answer keys)

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