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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 animal does Ichabod resemble as he sits astride the horse with his angled limbs protruding awkwardly?

2. What does the author refer to Van Tassel's home as?

3. What is Ichabod's focus from the moment he visits the Van Tassel's home?

4. What is Ichabod's real love?

5. What does Ichabod do to the students the evening of the Van Tassel event?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does finding the papers amongst a dead man establish tone?

2. What is the point of Gunpowder's frequent stops, starts, and turns to the race Ichabod has with the Headless Horseman?

3. What does the author imply by using the allusion of the lion and the lamb?

4. What is the significance of Ichabod's voracious appetite throughout the story?

5. Why does the narrator refer to Ichabod's desire to win Katrina's hand in marriage a "holy" quest?

6. How does the author set up the reader to expect anything to happen?

7. How does the storyteller use similes to describe the school and Ichabod's students?

8. In what ways is Ichabod Crane an anti-hero?

9. Why does the narrator go into details about how Sleepy Hollow came to be so mythical?

10. In what ways does Washington Irving lend credibility to his story?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Determine the antagonist in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and defend your opinion with details from the text.

Essay Topic 2

In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the narrator describes Ichabod as a scarecrow. At the end of the story, a smashed pumpkin is found, but Ichabod has vanished. What is the significance of using the scarecrow and pumpkin for Ichabod? Why did the author want to convey about Ichabod's character?

Essay Topic 3

A metaphor is used to compare to unlike things. In what ways is the metaphor played throughout the story? How and where is the metaphor prevalent in the story? Do you think the use of metaphors is effective to the overall storyline? Why or why not?

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This section contains 651 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample