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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 the Delta Force describe the situation to the controller after the scientists realize salt water is around the meteorite?

2. What does Rachel develop a fear of as a child?

3. What is the name of the NASA administrator who greets Rachel at the glacier?

4. How many men are in a storm tent and call themselves Delta?

5. What does Delta One throw at Rachel and the others that makes the glacier break away and drop in the ocean?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the conversation between the president and Marjorie Tench when she suggests going to a CNN debate with Sexton instead of him?

2. How does Michael's wife help him secure his weekly television show?

3. Why does Pickering tell Rachel to wait to tell the president about her findings on the meteorite when she calls him aboard the USS Charlotte?

4. What is the nature of Ekstrom and Marjorie Tench's phone conversation in Chapter 75?

5. What does Ekstrom do after a NASA technician finds Dr. Ming's dead body?

6. How are Rachel, Michael, and Corky rescued from the Arctic Ocean in Chapter 61?

7. How is Michael's belief of panspermia described in the book?

8. How is the Delta Force's mission described in Chapter 15?

9. How are the Delta Force described when they are first seen in the book?

10. How does Dr. Charles Brophy die?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the author's use of a prologue and epilogue in the book. What information is added to and left up to the reader with the use of this method?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's use of the storm as a metaphor in the book. In what way did the author relate the metaphor of a storm at both the Milne Ice Shelf and in Washington, D.C. in the book?

Essay Topic 3

Politics plays an important role throughout the book and allows the author to impart factual information about the governmental system into the book.

Part 1.) What role do press conferences and the media play in the portrayal of politics in the book?

Part 2.) What is the nature of the author's portrayal of the presidential candidates Zackary Herney and Sedgwick Sexton?

Part 3.) What is telling of the true nature of politics based on Gabrielle's feelings towards them by the end of the book?

(see the answer keys)

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