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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. How many of the Portuguese battalion survived the attack by Loup?

2. What do the French do to get to Sharpe's troops?

3. What does El Castrador tell Sharpe when he arrives after the battle?

4. How does Hogan feel about Sharpe's interaction with Kiely?

5. How many of the Officers of the Real Compañía Irlandesa were killed or wounded?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Kiely tell Sharpe about the French and about his men?

2. How does Sharpe deal with the problem of desertion?

3. What do Sharpe and his men find in the village when they get there?

4. What are called the keys to Spain by the French and who holds them?

5. Why is Sharpe frustrated at the beginning of the book, what does Harper do about it and how does Sharpe respond to Harper?

6. Who is with the Portuguese and why is Sharpe happy about that?

7. How does Sharpe find out what happened to the Portuguese ammunition wagons?

8. What is in the letter from the Spanish king to General Wellington that upsets him?

9. What is happening with the Real Compañía Irlandesa that worries Sharpe?

10. How does Juanita arrive at San Isidoro and what is the response of some of the men?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A work of fiction is often organized around a structure called a plot. Discuss the following:

1. Define plot and its major parts (rising action, climax, falling action, resolution [or denouement]. Write a sentence or two synopsis of the major plot of the Sharpe's Battle.

2. Identify where the parts of the plot seem to fall in Sharpe's Battle. Explain using examples.

3. Define the literary term "subplot." Write a sentence or two synopsis of a subplot in Sharpe's Battle.

4. Identify the major parts of the subplot you identified in task number 3.

5. Why do you think identifying the plot and elements of the plot is useful?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze one major theme of Sharpe's Battle. Consider the following: How does one character's actions portray the theme you are analyzing? How does the setting contribute to that theme? Is the theme one that you would call a "universal theme"? If so, what other book or novel that you have read also includes this theme. If not, why don't you think it is a "universal" theme?

2. Trace and analyze two secondary themes of Sharpe's Battle. How does one character's actions portray the themes you are analyzing? How does the setting contribute to those themes? Is each theme one that you would call a "universal theme"? If so, what other book or novel that you have read also includes this theme. If not, why don't you think it is a "universal" theme?

3. What benefit is there in discussing and analyzing the themes of a work of fiction? Do you think most authors consciously develop themes in their works? Why or why not? Can there be accidental themes? What do you think is one possible "accidental" theme in Sharpe's Battle? Which theme in Sharpe's Battlespeaks to you the most in your life? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Most of the French are gone when Sharpe and his men arrive at a small settlement, except for two men who are raping a young Spanish girl in one of the cottages. Sharpe and Harper enter the rest of the cottages and find a number of Spanish civilians have been slaughtered, some tortured and raped and many of them children. Sharpe gathers his men and prepares to execute the two Frenchmen who are left. Sharpe has the two prisoners put up against a wall and shot.

1. Discuss the differences between how a soldier who rapes and murders during war might behave in his own home. For example, do you think if a man who became a rapist and a murderer in war would have been a murderer and rapist had he never gone to war? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think what Sharpe did with the two French prisoners was right or wrong? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. It is obvious from Sharpe's encounter with Loup that Loup encouraged or at least allowed his men to rape, torture and murder. Why do you think Sharpe did not kill Loup when he killed the two prisoners? Loup was under a flag of truce, but Sharpe had already broken the rules of war by executing the prisoners. Discuss the difference Sharpe may have seen between executing two prisoners and honoring a flag of truce. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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