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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. According to Casaubon's reinterpretation of Ardenti's parchment, how often are the Templars instructed to meet?

2. Who does Aglie bring to the ceremony at the Conservatoire, sedated?

3. What is Aglie's response to the group Casaubon adds to the list?

4. Where does Casaubon go to inquire about Aglie in Chapter 112?

5. Who is the Old Man of the Mountain?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Casaubon do after the night at the Conservatoire?

2. What is set up by the cloaked individuals in the Conservatoire?

3. What story does Casaubon's group devise from Abulafia's output?

4. Why does Casaubon include a group not related to the Freemasons when constructing his time line?

5. What is the final piece of information for the Plan, supplied by Salon?

6. What does Belbo say about the believability of the Plan, in Chapter 100?

7. What do Salon and Casaubon talk about when Casaubon visits Salon in his shop?

8. What deduction do Casaubon and his group make about the Pendulum's purpose, in Chapter 99?

9. What does Aglie want Belbo to transport for him?

10. What does Lia try to explain to Casaubon, in Chapter 63?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the main characters' individual quests for knowledge and truth. How do Casaubon, Belbo and Diotallevi search for their version of the truth? What does each character, respectively, discover? What are the similarities and differences in each character's version of the truth? Be sure to cite specific examples from the text to support your thesis.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the pendulum as a symbol. What does it represent? Why is the novel named after it? What role does it play in the lives of the main characters? How does the author seem to feel about it? What is the significance of Belbo being hanged from it, and the double pendulum that creates? Be sure to cite specific examples from the text to support your thesis.

Essay Topic 3

The Knights Templar are one of the main occult groups presented in the novel. Why is so little known about them? Why are they so central to a variety of beliefs and traditions? Why are scholars so interested in them after so many centuries? What information presented regarding the Templars is fact, and what is speculation? Be sure to cite specific examples from the text to support your thesis.

(see the answer keys)

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