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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. What does Nick Tooley ask Nat about Nat's aunt?

2. What do Gil and Rachel realize is a result of the swap of the two Nats?

3. Who visits Nat at the Fisher's home?

4. How does Nat leave the hospital?

5. Why do Gil and Rachel believe Nat's tale about his trip to an earlier time?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Nat argue with Arby about Nat's exit and what does Nat do?

2. Where does Nat awaken in Chapter 17 and what does he find out?

3. What is Nat trying to figure out about himself and what are the other apprentices trying to figure out about Nat while they are celebrating at a tavern.

4. How does Nat feel before the performance and how does Shakespeare help Nat with those feelings?

5. Why is Nat worried concerning the political situation and Shakespeare and Burbage?

6. In Chapter 12, who arrives at Guy's Hospital and what does the person learn?

7. Describe Nat, Burbage and Shakespeare's interview with Queen Elizabeth I.

8. Why does Nat challenge Arby's authority?

9. What does Shakespeare tell Nat about soldiers in the theater and what happens with that situation?

10. What secret does Arby reveal to Nat?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There are a number of interesting questions raised by "King of Shadows". Questions that Cooper might want readers to consider and think through carefully. Discuss the following:

1. What does the term "author agenda" mean?

2. Name one idea/concept you think may have been a part of the Cooper's agenda (for example Nat's father's suicide). Analyze that idea throughout the book and discuss Cooper's probable agenda concerning that idea.

2. Do you think writers who have an agenda for writing should point it out in a preface?

3. How often do you think fiction is written with a clear agenda in mind by the author?

4. Research the life of Cooper and see if/where her life may have influenced her writing.

Essay Topic 2

In order to set up the plot, the writer has to introduce an implausible events. Discuss the following:

1. Research and define the term "narrative contrivance" and give several examples of it from other books and movies you have read.

2. Analyze the the event that seems a bit too far fetched that sets the rest of the story in motion. Is there any way theses "contrivances" could be left out and the plot move forward in much the same way that it does? What other ways are there to have gotten the same results?

3. Is much of fiction in some ways a contrivance? Why or why not.

Essay Topic 3

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 "King of Shadows", 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 of "King of Shadows". (They may not contain every element of a major plot). 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.

(see the answer keys)

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