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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 the best moment of the river trip for Alex?

2. What do the travelers eat that Alex has never seen as food?

3. Why are piranhas useful?

4. What does Alex believe are his own best qualities?

5. What did the Amazon natives do with their captives in the past, according to Professor Leblanc?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Cesar Santos say that the Amazon Indians rejected Christianity?

2. What theory does Kate accept about the origin of the Amazon Indians?

3. What kind of father is John Cold?

4. Why is Cecilia Burns an important character although we never see her?

5. Why does Ludovic Leblanc's attitude toward women offend Kate and Omayra Torres?

6. Why does Kate believe that the Indians of the Amazon are indeed civilized?

7. How have the Amazon Indians escaped enslavement and destruction?

8. How did Nadia become multilingual?

9. Why is Alex upset by seeing his father shave his mother, Lisa's, head?

10. How do the different members of the expedition believe the Beast should be dealt with?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how Alex gains power during his initiation ceremony. What does he take from his father, his mother, and the jaguar? How is he different when the ceremony is concluded?

Essay Topic 2

Select two of the following characters to describe the difference between what they seemed to be and what they actually were: Omayra Torres, Karakawe, the Beast, or the Rahakanariwa. Use examples from the text to show what gives the initial impression, and how that impression is changed as the story progresses.

Essay Topic 3

In what ways was the opinion of the expedition members about the nature of the Beast inaccurate? How did they develop inaccurate opinions? In what ways were they correct?

(see the answer keys)

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