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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. At what university is Irian stationed?

2. Mal and Christopher flee Adam through a field of which of the following?

3. How often are sphinxes reported to eat those who visit them?

4. What does Frank have in store in his house?

5. What nereid saves Christopher?

Short Essay Questions

1. When is the way to the Archipelago normally supposed to open?

2. In what circumstances can Mal fly?

3. Why is Christopher sent to Scotland?

4. Why, per the novel, does a person need the kind of friendship that emerges between Mal and Christopher?

5. Why does Mal throw Gelifen off of the cliff?

6. What are voulay drops?

7. Why does Nighthand note preferring to face the world drunk?

8. What is Frank’s job as guardian?

9. In the novel, what is a bridgi?

10. What does Ratwin claim befell those prior to Mal and Christopher who sought the help of the Neverfear?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Rundell’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 2

Typically, an epigraph is expected to speak to or set the tone for the work it introduces. Do the epigraphs of Impossible Creatures do so for the present novel? How or how not?

Essay Topic 3

Similarly, how might the novel be sectioned off for discussion and study other than it currently is? Why might those divisions be appropriate, based on the text and its contexts of composition and reception?

(see the answer keys)

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