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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. Who does Sharpe visit at Roa's house?

2. What does the British army dig?

3. What does Mary learn from the General's wife?

4. What group never lacks for volunteers?

5. What happens when Sharpe encounters Hakeswill?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Tippoo decide to do with Lawford and Sharpe after questioning them?

2. What does Mary do when Rao decides to rescue McCandless and what does Kunwar Singh do?

3. How does Tippoo execute criminals and what does he do afterward?

4. What do the rescuers find at the dungeon?

5. What does Hakeswill do when it comes his turn to be killed?

6. How does Sharpe get them out of the prison?

7. How does Tippoo entertain his troops and what does he plan to do with the British prisoners during the entertainment?

8. What does Sharpe say to Lawford about the rockets?

9. How does Sharpe get information about the mine and what does he figure out about the mine?

10. Why was Sharpe honored and what did he receive?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Oftentimes, a book is more of a character-driven plot rather than action driven, and oftentimes the other way. Some books seem to balance the two. Discuss the following:

1. What do you think it means to say that a plot is character driven? Action driven?

2. How do you think a plot differs if it is character driven versus action driven?

3. Which type of plot do you find more interesting? Why?

4. Do you think it is possible to have a plot where action and character development share equal time? Why or why not.

5. What type of plot do you think Sharpe's Tiger is? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 2

In "Sharpe's Tiger" the British are fighting in India, a country which the British has conquered and made a part of the British Empire.

1. Discuss the moral issues surrounding one country conquering another. Use examples from the book to support your answer.

2. Richard Sharpe is presented as the hero in "Sharpe's Tiger" and yet Tippoo Sultan is fighting for the right of his country to be independent of a conqueror. Discuss the behavior of Tippoo which shows him to be as much of a hero as Sharpe. Use examples from "Sharpe's Tiger" to support your answer.

3. With research compare British invasion and occupation of India with a similar incident that occurs in the 20th. century.

Essay Topic 3

Cornwell is masterful in his description of battles and life in general for a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about life as a soldier. How does he use descriptions of the five senses to make the reader feel s/he is there? Do you find his descriptions compelling? Seemingly accurate? How would "Sharpe's Tiger" be different if Cornwell did not include such descriptive passages?

2. Analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about the social structure of the times and discuss what you think it would be like to be a person of wealth and/or privilege such as Wellington? Contrast that to the lives of those who are in a lower social strata such as Sharpe, Mary or Hakeswill.

3. Describe and analyze Cornwell's descriptive passages about the topographical setting and the physical descriptions of the people. Does Cornwell do an adequate job of actually making the reader "see" the land where the action is taking place? How about getting a visual image of the characters? How does the descriptions of the setting add to the novel? Do you like having an idea of how a character looks? How would the novel be different without such descriptions?

(see the answer keys)

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