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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 Tippoo decide to do with Sharpe and Lawford?

2. What does Sharpe observe at the west gate?

3. What message did Sharpe want to give the British?

4. What is Sharpe's assessment of the British situation?

5. Why does Sharpe ignite the fuse of the mine?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Gudin order Sharpe to do to sabotage the British and who does he encounter when he does?

3. Where does Sharpe go after the ceremony, what does he find out and how does he feel about it?

4. With whom does Sharpe fight and what plan of his does his fight prevent?

5. What does Lawford tell Sharpe about rockets and what do they see as they watch them being used?

6. What do the British first do with their cannons to begin to breach Tippoo's wall?

7. What is the first task Gudin has Sharpe and Lawford do and how well do they do it? How does Lawford feel afterward?

8. What does Tippoo hope as the British prepare to attack and what happens to that hope?

9. Of what do the British and Tippoo's forces consist?

10. How does Sharpe take care of the black-powder mine?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Most protagonists are a mixture of admirable traits and character flaws, and Richard Sharpe is no exception. Sharpe's legendary powers of military strategy is juxtaposed with his reputation as a womanizer. Discuss the following:

1. Trace and analyze situations when Sharpe demonstrates his prodigious powers of military strategy. Give specific examples to illustrate your analysis.

2. Trace and analyze Sharpe's character flaws offering specific examples of these flaws in your discussion.

3. Discuss how you think Sharpe's admirable traits helped him obtain a higher rank in the military despite his background as a child. Have his flaws impacted his career at all? Do any of those under his command seem to notice these flaws? Who? How does the reader know this?

Essay Topic 3

Cornwell has tried as much as possible to use historical events and facts around which to weave his work of fiction. Discuss the following:

1. Do you think this book qualifies as an historical fiction? Why or why not?

2. If much of the events in the book are historical, what surprises you about the way the events play out?

3. Do you think the culture of that era is more or less advanced than you imagined? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

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