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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Arkoun die?
(a) Tanus fatally stabs him.
(b) He receives a deep arrow wound in his chest.
(c) Taita cuts off his head.
(d) He falls off the castle bridge, a thousand feet down.

2. What would happen if Lostris bore the illegitimate child of another man?
(a) She would be beheaded.
(b) She would lose the crown.
(c) She would be ostracized from society.
(d) She would not be allowed to keep the child.

3. When some passengers are reluctant to travel south into Africa, where do they disembark?
(a) At the southern border.
(b) At Thebes.
(c) At Elephantine Island.
(d) At the first cataract.

4. Why does Lostris delay the burial of her husband past the seventy days of embalming?
(a) She is afraid the Hyksos will plunder the tomb.
(b) She does not feel that there is enough treasure to accompany him.
(c) Memnon is not yet old enough to attend the burial ceremony.
(d) The tomb is not yet finished because Pharaoh died earlier than expected.

5. When does Memnon first see Masara, prisoner of the Ethiopian king Arkoun?
(a) When she is sitting at the edge of the camp with her four jailers.
(b) When she is playing bao board with the king.
(c) When she is walking along the sandy shore of the Nile.
(d) When she is bathing on the banks of the Nile.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the constant problem with the first chariots?

2. How does Pharaoh react to the accusations of Lord Intef's guilt?

3. How does Lord Intef die?

4. Why does Lostris establish a dozen hospitals and hotels for poor people in Thebes?

5. Why does Taita think he deserves to be called the best artist in all the land?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Queen Lostris demand an elaborate tomb for her husband? What does this say about her loyalty to Pharaoh and does it contradict her order that Egyptians would not make their home in the land of Cush?

2. What is Taita's reaction to the birth of Memnon? How does he slightly bridge the gap between the roles that both Tanus and Pharaoh play in Lostris's life?

3. Why do you think Smith goes into details about the mummification of Pharaoh's body? Is this fitting to the novel? Especially in relation to Taita's character, since he is involved in the embalming, do the details add to or detract from the story?

4. When Tanus returns to Thebes to reveal Akh-Seth and exonerate himself from the death penalty, what sounds are there? How do the sounds, especially voices, help to explain the scene?

5. How does Taita justify the enslavement of the Shilluk people? What does he observe about their customs and what does he seek to change? How do the Shilluk customs of marriage differentiate, in a large part, their culture from that of the Egyptians?

6. What is the attitude of the Hyksos as they face the Egyptians in battle? What do you think is the reason for this arrogance? What has led them this far west?

7. What happens when the Nile floods? How does this event bring together science and religious observation? How is it also an opportunity for vice, particularly greed?

8. Who is Arkoun? Why is he a powerful man? At the same time, what in Taita's descriptions portray him as a pathetic man?

9. What is the reaction of both Tanus and Pharaoh to the news of Lostris's pregnancy? What do their reactions say about their personal priorities?

10. Why do Lostris and Tanus disagree over the fate of the Hyksos horses? How does this argument illustrate their respective places in society?

(see the answer keys)

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