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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 Silver do when she begins to lose her sanity?

2. What special properties does the magical lamp possess?

3. What interrupts Kin the second time she tries to bathe?

4. What do some of the characters come to suspect about the flat planet soon after rescuing Kin?

5. Where do the explorers sleep that night?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the locals intend to do with Kin, and how is this prevented?

2. How does the group confirm that they are being followed?

3. What are the man on the flying carpet's real motivations?

4. Where does the Djinnee come from, and what does he do?

5. What is the group being followed by, and how is it unusual?

6. What do Kin and Marco resolve to do until Shand proteins can be found for Silver?

7. Whom do Kin and the others meet in the desert? What is the result of this meeting?

8. Why does Kin refuse to believe that the Company could have created the flat planet?

9. What is unusual about the first island that Kin and the others come to after leaving the sailors' homeland? What danger does the group face there?

10. How do Kin's feelings about the Company begin to change soon after the dumbwaiter is destroyed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Company is an organization of enormous power. It literally has power over life and death, and wields enormous influence in human culture. Kin's loyalty to the Company affects significant parts of the story.

Part 1) Describe the Company, it's history, and its goals.

Part 2) How well has the Company succeeded in its goals? Have its aims changed at all from the time of its founding?

Part 3) Why is the Company so large and influential? How is the Company's power seen in the story?

Part 4) Explain some of the consequences, both positive and negative, of the Company's enormous influence. Has it changed human society for the better, or for worse?

Essay Topic 2

The raven is a large unknown in the novel. Its nature is never fully explained. It is certainly not a normal raven, since it can burn through a metal cage, appear to be intelligent, and can keep up with Kin and the others as they fly across the flat planet. It could easily have been built by the creators of the flat planet, since it is not obviously more advanced than other robotic constructions that the explorers discover on the planet. However, it was given as a "gift" to Jago on the distant Kung, making its origins mysterious.

Part 1) What is known about the raven? How does it join the group, and what are its apparent motives? What are its known or probable capabilities?

Part 2) Explore the mission of the raven. At the end of the novel, was that mission a failure or a success?

Part 3) Speculate as to what group created the raven, and why.

Part 4) How is the raven connected to Kin and the others, and what will its creators do with it now?

Essay Topic 3

Jago Jalo is an interesting character about whom little is known. Most of his story must be interpolated from a small amount of information in the novel.

Part 1) What was Jago like before he was sent out on the Terminus project? Think about what sort of qualities would qualify someone for a difficult task like this, and what would make a person volunteer for the duty.

Part 2) What were Jago's adventures on the planet like after he crashed? Why was he not accepted as Disc Master, and how was he able to get off the planet?

Part 3) What was Jago's plan upon returning to the planet?

(see the answer keys)

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