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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. Who overhears Jackie de Bellefort and Simon Doyle talking in a restaurant in chapter 1?

2. Why does Poirot tell Jackie at the end of chapter 7 that he feels sorry for her?

3. How does Mr. Pennington say he missed a letter informing him of Linnet's marriage?

4. For what reason does Mr. Pennington give for needing Linnet's signature on some documents in chapter 9?

5. Where does Mr. Richetti insist on going alone in chapter 11?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Tim Allerton respond to his mother's decision to invite Hercule Poirot to join them at their table at meal times?

2. Who does Poirot meet in chapter 7 when he goes to visit a museum on Elephantine Island?

3. In chapter 15, what common thing do three of the passengers report hearing about the time of the murder? What does this cause Poirot to believe happened just after the murder?

4. In chapter 6, what advice does Poirot give to Simon Doyle about evading Jackie in the future?

5. In chapter 9, Mr. Pennington attempts to have Linnet sign some legal papers for him? What does Linnet do that annoys Mr. Pennington? How does Simon say he would do things differently?

6. In chapter 2, what scene does Poirot witness between Linnet, Simon, and Jackie? What is significant about this scene?

7. In chapter 10, who does Poirot speak to about Linnet? What does he learn?

8. In chapter 11, an old acquaintance of Poirot's boards the ship. Who is this person and why is he there?

9. In chapter 9, what is odd about Mrs. Otterbourne's behavior?

10. In chapter 13, a letter j is found written in blood above Linnet's body. What does Poirot think the purpose of this was and to what does he compare it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does Poirot focus on Linnet's missing pearls in the investigation? Where are the pearls initially discovered? What does this reveal about Miss Van Schuyler? What does Poirot notice about the recovered pearls? What does he feel is significant about this? Who does it turn out stole the real pearls? For what reason? Who put this person up to the theft? For what reason? Why does Poirot agree to allow this thief to go free? How does this impact the future of the thief? How does this impact a relationship between the thief and a potential new lover?

Essay Topic 2

Why does Jackie admit to killing Linnet, the maid, and Mrs. Otterbourne? For what reason does she say she did this? Why did Simon marry Linnet in the first place? How does this prove that Linnet was not the bad person Jackie portrayed her to be? How did Simon really feel about Linnet? Why did he kill her? What did he hope would be the ultimate reward of killing Linnet? How does Jackie respond to Poirot's accusations? To the news that Simon has admitted the truth? What happens to Jackie and Simon in the end?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following themes in detail, using quotes from the novel to support your conclusions:

1) Wealth

2) Friendship

3) Betrayal.

(see the answer keys)

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