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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 Dirk omit from his report on the fight against Them in his hotel room?

2. Who is LT Robert Buckmaster?

3. Why is Dirk's and Al's mission time-critical?

4. What argument does Summer use to convince Delphi not to shoot Al and Dirk inside the seamount?

5. What threat does Dirk face being left behind as as the others ride the air bubble from the Starbuck's escape hatch to the surface?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Dirk reinforce his disregard for authority upon return from the Pacific Vortex with the crew of the Martha Ann?

2. In his description of the attack, Dirk notices something significant that could immeasurably assist the crew of the Martha Ann to prevent the boarding of the men from the sea. What is it and how could it be turned into an opportunity for the crew?

3. In both Chapters 9 and 10, Dirk endeavors to get his way by assuring the Naval men that he "will take full responsibility." Why does this seem to be the easiest way for Dirk to gain their compliance?

4. How do Dirk and LCDR Boland differ over how to wage battle against the men from the sea as they face impending attack on the Martha Ann?

5. Besides Dirk's lost love, what does Summer represent to the Navy and why would it have been important to rescue her?

6. Why does Dirk flood the Starbuck's torpedo compartment?

7. It is evident that Seaman First Class Farris could never have been any help to Delphi's cause or mission, however, Delphi keeps him alive, in spite of admitting to Dirk that Farris is "a minor miscalculation." What might be some reasons for this?

8. What changes ADM Hunter's mind about obeying the destroy orders from the joint Chiefs in Washington D.C.?

9. What does LT Robert Buckmaster discover at the old Army installation, which supposedly belongs to Delphi that partially explains the entirely unexpected fierce resistance to Marine's invasion? How might this situation have come to be?

10. What are ADM Hunter and Dirk Pitt's differing opinions on Adrian?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Everything in the submarine seems to indicate that someone is actively maintaining the vessel or at least "picked up afterwards." It seems an obvious inference that there might be someone still on the ship. Yet Dirk and LT March press ahead assuming it is a ghost ship. What might be some reasons for that? Psychological? Other evidence to the contrary? Stubbornness or at least reckless disregard for prudence?

Essay Topic 2

Singularly absent from the entire book is any elaboration on these "men from the sea." The closest explanation of any aspect of them is Dirk's comments: "Even your hired help wander around like robots" and "your entire organization is built on blind obedience to you [Delphi]." There is no comment on where they came from, who they were, or what kind of man might have volunteered to abandon his above-sea life to have a gill surgically attached to his chest and become a mass murderer. Analyze the concept of this underwater army and who they are, or might have been.

Essay Topic 3

How would you characterize Cussler's writing style in Pacific Vortex? Analyze all of the elements of writing style including the perspective, bias, structure, diction and syntax, imagery, etc. Is this a laudable first effort on Cussler's part? Is there perhaps a stylistic reason it is not the first published book?

(see the answer keys)

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