View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is wrong with Charlie Prine when Margo sees him? Why?

2. What does Dr. Frock tell Margo the Ki tribe once used to treat headaches in Chapter 6?

3. How much force does the coroner's office suggest it would require to create the lacerations on the security guard's body in one stroke?

4. In Chapter 15, who claimed to have seen the museum creature one morning as it slunk around a corner in the basement?

5. Why did Dr. Cuthbert move the Whittlesey crates into the Secure Area?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what year does Whittlesey's expedition take place? How long is this before the events depicted in the rest of the novel?

2. What do the scientists at the independent lab tell Pendergast and D'Agosta in Chapter 23 about the DNA sample taken from the claw found in the chest of one of the victims?

3. What is Dr. Frock's main complaint about Dr. Cuthbert's new exhibit at the Museum of Natural History?

4. What does Smithback ask Kawakita to help him with in Chapter 25? Why does Kawakita refuse?

5. Why is D'Agosta called to the Computer Room in Chapter 26? What happens while he is there?

6. How does Margo end up in the Superstition Exhibit hall in Chapter 20?

7. What is a scientific expedition?

8. What effect is the murder investigation having on the Museum of Natural History's visitors and staff?

9. What family crisis is taking place in the Green family, forcing Margo to make a decision that could end her dreams of completing her education?

10. Why is the local bar, The Blarney Stone Tavern, near the museum referred to as The Bones by museum employees?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss two of the following. Include in your discussion how the two elements work together to build a strong plot:

1) Setting

2) Character

3) Point of view

4) Language

5) Structure

Essay Topic 2

Why do Pendergast and Margo lure the creature to them? How do they hope to kill it? Why does Pendergast force Margo to hold the flashlight? What does light do to the creature? How does Pendergast know this? What is Margo's role in the killing of the creature? Why are the first few shots against the creature unsuccessful? How does Pendergast finally kill the creature? Why did no one think of this sooner? Why is Frock unable to autopsy the creature? What might Frock have found if he had?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following themes in detail:

1) Survival Instinct

2) Ambition

3) Responsibility

4) Scientific Theory

5) Genetic Mutation

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,013 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample