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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. Why is Jack happy about living in Kingsbridge despite Alfred's abuse?

2. Why doesn't the master builder of Salisbury Cathedral hire Tom?

3. Where is Tom's third child born?

4. What has Tom Builder been hired to build for the earl's daughter and her fiancée?

5. What angers Philip about the monks right after he arrives at his new assignment?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Aliena and Richard escape from the castle?

2. Describe the condemned man's appearance.

3. What is the secret compromise that Philip proposes to the Hamleighs about the forests and quarry in Shiring and how does this affect his relationship with Waleran?

4. What does Tom ask Ellen after she allows Tom and the children to stay in her cave, giving them food and shelter?

5. Describe the business that Aliena begins when she gets the money her father left for her and Richard with a priest in Winchester?

6. What does Tom discover when he has a change of heart and goes back to Agnes' grave to get the baby?

7. What is the reaction of the townspeople as the man is led to the gallows?

8. What is the vow that Aliena's father asks her to make when she and Richard visit him in prison?

9. What does the condemned man do as the noose is placed around his neck?

10. What does Prior Philip have the monks of the monastery do when William Hamleigh's men will not let, Tom, the master builder of Kingsbridge, go into the quarry for stone?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

1) Compare the hanging of Jack Shareburg in the beginning of the novel to the hanging of William Hamleigh at the end.

2) Compare the reaction of the two prisoners, and the reaction of the spectators while awaiting the hanging.

3) What do the hangings reveal about the character of Jack and William?

Essay Topic 2

1) Evaluate the elements of cause and effect in this story using examples from the novel.

2) Choose three events and characters from the story which cause their lives to undergo a change.

3) How do the characters react to the events and their effects?

4) How do they change emotionally, financially, and spiritually because of these events?

Essay Topic 3

1) Summarize the events that led up to Philip's raising Jonathan in the monastery?

2) How do these events relate to the plot of the story?

3) How do the events affect the characters in the novel? Cite examples from the novel to support the answer.

(see the answer keys)

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