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. In what year does "The Castle" open?

2. Why is Caius Porteus ordered to destroy a village?

3. What is the name of the Judean slave with whom Porteus has an affair?

4. How many years before the birth of Christ, or the Common Era (C.E.), does the novel open?

5. What Roman Emperor decides to conquer Britain?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do both church and state government need each other at this time?

2. Why are so many young women sacrificed while Krona grieves over the loss of his wife and child?

3. How did the practice of farming come to England?

4. What sort of economic arrangement do the farmers and hunters make concerning pelts?

5. How does the king raising taxes on Jews affect Godefroi and Shockley's loan?

6. How did the political troubles between the king and the knights begin?

7. What religious secret does Petrus conceal?

8. After the plague, why do wages rise so high?

9. Why does Port announce that he will give a gold cross to the nunnery?

10. What connection do rats and fleas have to the Black Death?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Covering thousands of years, the novel mentions many specific historical events. Does the huge scope of the novel in terms of centuries and millennia make the human enacted events such as wars seem more or less significant?

Essay Topic 2

Who is the author Edward Rutherfurd, and what are some of his other notable works?

Essay Topic 3

The chapter beginning in the year 1244 is titled "The Foundling." Why does the chapter have this title, and how is this a fitting title?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 565 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample