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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. How are VJ's personal security guards paid?

2. Whose liver tissue does Victor get from the hospital in Chapter 10?

3. Who threatens Victor at the secret lab?

4. Who threatens Marsha while she's trying to track down Orlando Martinez?

5. Whose liver tissue does Victor take from the hospital sample storage area?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to Sharon Carver at the end of Chapter 9?

2. How do VJ and Victor interact, when they go to VJ's lab in Chapter 13?

3. When Victor returns to the lab, what does he try to convince VJ to do?

4. Why did VJ want to appear to be less intelligent?

5. What is Victor's reaction to what Marsha learned from VJ's school?

6. How much of the secret lab does Victor see?

7. How does Marsha's conversation with Philip at the beginning of Chapter 12 end?

8. Describe Marsha and Victor's conflicting views of VJ during Chapter 12.

9. What do the police do about the dead body Marsha finds when she arrives home?

10. What happens to Victor when he's searching the clock tower?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss secretiveness in the novel.

1) What secrets does VJ keep in the novel? Why does VJ keep secrets? Why don't his parents realize what he's doing?

2) What secrets does Victor keep in the novel? Why does he keep these secrets? What would Victor lose or gain by making his discoveries public and being more open about his research?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the nature of knowledge in the novel.

1) How do scientists in the novel make discoveries? What are the limitations of their knowledge about what they are doing and the consequences of their actions?

2) What can and cannot be known in the novel? What different types of knowledge are there?

3) What should and should not be known in the novel? Are certain types of knowledge dangerous?

Essay Topic 3

VJ is described as evil by some of the characters in the novel. Discuss the novel's portrayal of evil.

1) What is the nature of evil in the novel, and how does the novel address the nature of evil? Is VJ truly evil, and how is he defined as evil?

2) Are Victor's actions evil? Is Victor an evil character? Is Victor more evil than VJ, or less? Why?

3) What other elements of evil, like the Colombian drug cartel, exist in the novel? In what ways are they evil? How does their evil compare to VJ.

(see the answer keys)

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