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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 long ago did Captain Kidd’s wife die, that he came up these roads into North Texas?

2. What does Captain Kidd say his daughter Elizabeth will enjoy, once she comes to San Antonio from the East?

3. How does Captain Kidd refer to the Daily State Journal?

4. Where does Captain Kidd make arrangements to read the news in Durand?

5. What danger awaits Captain Kidd and Johanna in the hill country?

Short Essay Questions

1. What uproar does Johanna cause near the river with the stave mill, and how does she react when the uproar is settled?

2. What is the conversation that passes between Captain Kidd and Johanna on Johanna’s wedding day?

3. How does Johanna save Captain Kidd’s life when they are passing through the hill country to Fredericksburg?

4. How does the novel speed up after the fight in Durand?

5. What is Captain Kidd nervous about now that the Almay and the Caddos have been defeated?

6. How do Captain Kidd and Johanna turn the tides of the battle Carlyle Springs?

7. What danger do Captain Kidd and Johanna face in the hill country south of Lampasas?

8. How do Almay and the Caddos approach Captain Kidd, and how does this work in Captain Kidd’s favor?

9. Why is Captain Kidd cautious about reading from the Inquirer?

10. Where does Captain Kidd take shelter in his flight from Almay?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify the most important plot points in News of the World. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

Essay Topic 2

When is News of the World most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 3

Where do you see the story line of News of the World taking place in today’s culture? Are there parallels between Captain Kidd and Johanna and people today? What is the closest film or book or news story to the events represented here? How has the story changed? How has it remained the same?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,203 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample