View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Peter not take the car to Melbourne?

2. How long does the USS Swordfish report being submerged that might be a record?

3. Why does Dwight think forty percent of his crew will not return to the Scorpion?

4. Who do Peter and John meet at the Pastoral Club in Melbourne?

5. What does Peter instruct Mary how to do if he is not back when the radiation hits?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain where is it deemed possible that life might actually be able to continue on Earth?

2. How had Dwight been warned of the possibility of the war?

3. What does it mean that the people had all died tidily?

4. What does John Osbourne estimate was the size of the nuclear war that was fought?

5. What is notable about Mary's plans for her garden?

6. How is Moira Davidson dealing with the eminent threat of death by radiation?

7. Explain why Peter, a navy lieutenant-commander, has not worked for the past seven months.

8. Why have people grown accustomed to the radiation coming their way and just go about their regular business?

9. How has the war simplified life in Australia to a large extent?

10. What is Moira's objection to Dwight's suggestion that she go to school?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the value of friendships. Using John and Peter as examples, write about the support one gets from making good friendships in life. Sometimes family is not near or for some reason cannot offer the support a good friend has to offer.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay on the possibility of the same world-wide destruction of all life on the planet could ever really happen. In your essay include the fact that today, just as Shute predicted, small radical nations now have nuclear capability. What is the danger of everything going too far when split second decisions have to be made about using the nuclear arsenal.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about holding onto personal values regardless of external circumstances. Express your opinion of Dwight who remains faithful to a dead wife and children. Does his behavior in the novel mark him as a heroic figure?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 697 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample