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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. Why does Kivrin take Agnes to Father Roche?

2. What does the note say from the young boy?

3. Who does Rosemund trust about the marriage?

4. Who is filling in for one of the bell ringers?

5. What does Mary realize when Montoya is brought in to the hospital with the virus?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Kivrin first do upon realizing the date and what is wrong with the clerk?

2. Why does Father Roche return to where the clerk lies and what does Kirvin ask of him?

3. Describe the scene where Kivrin goes to mass with the family and her talk with Gawyn on the way home.

4. What do Mary and Dunworthy realize when Montoya is brought into the hospital and how does Dunworthy react?

5. What about the virus situation in modern times concerns Dunworthy?

6. What is the situation with the steward and digging graves?

7. What does Kivrin talk about with Rosemund and what is her response?

8. Who is the next victim to fall ill and how does Kirvin discover it?

9. Why does Kivrin take Agnes to Father Roche and what is the outcome?

10. What does Dunworthy realize when talking to Badri?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the following:

1. What is a plot? What are the most important elements of a plot and their definition? Do all novels have a plot? Why or why not?

2. Write a brief synopsis of the plot of Doomsday Book, identifying where the various elements of the plot occur (Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution or denouement). Do you find it difficult to identify the plot? Why or why not? What about the various elements of the plot?

3. Identify the major sub-plots and their elements. Do the sub-plots add to the main plot? Why or why not. Are the sub-plots interesting in and of themselves? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

While Kivrin is delirious, she believes Fr. Roche is administering last rites because she is going to be burned at the stake. Discuss the following:

1. Research and write an informative essay about why and how often women were burned at the stake in England in the 14th century.

2. Do you think the church administered last rites to a witch who was being burned at the stake? Why or why not? What religious or spiritual significance did the church attach to a person burning at the stake?

3. When and where was the last time it is recorded that a woman is burned at the stake for witchcraft? Did they burn women at the stake for witchcraft in the United States? Why do you think the practice is stopped where it was practiced?

Essay Topic 3

In chapter one, Mary Ahrens is watching the preparations for sending a historian named Kivrin to 1320. The policy has been not to send historians to the medieval period because of the danger to the historian. Discuss the following:

1. Speculate as to what types of danger there may be to someone time traveling back to medieval times.

2. Research the cultural milieu of England in the mid-14th century and then analyze to see if your speculations in part 1 are accurate. What else can you add to what you said in part 1?

3. After researching England of the mid-14th century, do you think it was wise of Gilchrist to approve Kivrin's travel to that era (even considering she was to arrive a good 20 years before this huge plague outbreak)? Explain your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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