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. What is the name of the administrator of the Physical Anthropology lab?

2. What label did Smithback give Pamela Wisher?

3. What is the Devil's Attic?

4. What does Hayward tell Waxie and D'Agosta to watch for in the lower level?

5. What was the Tower modeled after?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does D'Agosta take Waxie's assignment as team leader for the investigation? Why does he feel it might be a good move for all concerned?

2. Why are the homeless referred to as "moles"?

3. When Mephisto gives Smithback the nickname "scriblerian," what does he imply?

4. What does Pendergast reveal about Hayward? How does Hayward feel about this revelation? How does D'Agosta feel about this revelation?

5. Police work seems to involve a lot of political jostling and brown-nosing. How is that concept illustrated in Chapter 11?

6. Why do you think people of so many disciplines are called in to examine the two skeletons found in the river?

7. What purpose might an evolutionary biologist and a biologist whose specialty is genetics serve to the police in this story?

8. What is ironic about using the muse of rhetoric, Polyhymnia, to name an ornate club in Chapter 10? Does its patronage seem to have anything to do with it?

9. In Chapter 8, an unknown person develops extra sensitive senses, apparently by ingesting some unknown drug. What do you think is the purpose of this character's in-depth description and failing to tell the reader who he is?

10. What do you think is the importance of the New York Museum of Natural History to the storyline?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The flooding of the tunnels to destroy the creatures is an extreme step, especially given the number of innocent people who could be in danger from the flooding. What purpose do you think this moral ambiguity will serve? Do you see it in any other situations in the book? Do you think it serves the same purpose in that instance?

Essay Topic 2

The officers leading this investigation seems simple, weak, demanding and lazy. What point do you think the author was trying to bring across with such characters? Is he making a statement on police leaders in general, or do you think he is trying to make his other characters seem stronger?

Essay Topic 3

The second skeleton is a huge mystery to the people investigating and examining it. They can find no obvious cause for the extensive remodeling of the bone structure and are baffled by its existence. What are some of the theories put forward initially? What happens when the skeleton is finally identified?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 915 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample