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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 Sharpe order Williams to do at the beginning of Chapter 2?

2. Who arrives at the farmhouse with extra cavalry?

3. What does Williams tell Sharpe that Vivar has told Williams about the strongbox?

4. Why does Louisa invite herself to dinner?

5. What does Sharpe tell the Parkers to do when he sights French cavalry?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Sharpe ask about the strong box and what is Vivar's response? How does Sharpe respond to this?

2. What does Sharpe do to talk to the French and what is the French colonel's appearance like compared to Sharpe?

3. Who, of the French forces chasing Vivar, does Vivar watch the most and why?

4. What does Sharp worry about with Louisa, what does she tell him and what is her response when he tells her about the strongbox?

5. What does Sharpe have his riflemen do when the French ambush them?

6. What do the British and Spanish find when they enter a village, what do they do and how do the troops feel?

7. Why does Sharpe withdraw his small force of riflemen he left in the woods?

8. What does De l'Eclin tell Sharpe about surrender and what does he say about the French army? What does Sharpe think of De l'Eclin's assertion about the French army?

9. Who does Sharpe meet when a monk wakes him and asks Sharpe to come with him and what does this person say to Sharpe?

10. What does Vivar asks Sharpe and what does Sharpe decide to do after speaking with Vivar?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sharpe's Rifles is one book in a series of novels involving Richard Sharpe. Discuss the following.

1. What are two advantages of writing a series of novels about the same characters? Illustrate your statements with details from the text.

2. What is a disadvantage of writing a series of novels about the same characters? Illustrate your statements with details from the text.

3. Do you prefer to read a standalone book, or a series of books with the same main characters? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 2

In any book centered around the military, leadership of the troops is often crucial with the better leaders able to command the respect and loyalty of their men. The men's willingness to follow a particular leader can have a decisive impact upon the success of a mission. Discuss the following:

1. Whose command style seems most effective? Analyze the elements of those effective leaders thoroughly and discuss the traits of the good leaders. What makes an excellent leader/commander? Give examples.

2. Whose command style seems most ineffective? Analyze the elements of those ineffective leaders thoroughly and discuss the traits of the poor leaders. What makes a poor leader/commander? Give examples.

3. Is disobeying a poor leader ever justifiable? Explain using details from the text, other books you have read and your personal experience. In times of war, disobeying an order can be punishable by death. Is this harsh sentence justifiable for such an act? Why or why not.

Essay Topic 3

Major Warren Dunnett is wealthy, educated, and titled, yet he is also militarily ignorant and is so haughty that he fails to recognize his own limitations. Sharpe is not wealthy, not educated, and not titled, though he knows the ins and outs of combat and knows how to lead soldiers. Major Warren Dunnett makes several mistakes, some catastrophic, while Sharpe works behind the scenes to keep the attack together.

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having a system of nobility in a country, especially how it applies to the military. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

2. The class separations in the era of Sharpe's Rifles are very distinct and the upper class is basically impenetrable to the lower class. Discuss the implications of Sharpe, the son of a prostitute being able to obtain the rank of lieutenant and the possible ramifications he might have to deal with when interacting with officers who come from a much higher class.

3. Often in this series of novels the upper class officers are presented as incompetent, at best, and dangerous and uncaring at worse. What might that portrayal suggest about how the author might feel about wealthy people and the positions they hold in society, whether qualified or not? Use examples from the text to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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