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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 does Muzaffar urge Volkmar to send his son back to Germany?

2. When the ten Jews in Rabbi Itzik's congregation decide to stay in Safed and tell the other Jews to leave, what is their response?

3. At the end of the book, who does Vered Bar-El decide to marry?

4. Abd Umar believes that the Jews discovered God, that God sent Jesus Christ as a prophet, and that God sent Muhammad as the next prophet, making Islam what?

5. Even though Yohanan wants his son Menahem to be a Jew, what do the rabbis tell him?

Short Essay Questions

1. In 1948, what does Isidore Gottesmann plan to do after the British leave Palestine?

2. Why does Makor fall so easily into Abd Umar's hands?

3. Where are Vered Bar-El and John Cullinane as the chapter "The Tell" opens?

4. In "The Law," who is Menahem, and why is he not accepted into the Jewish faith?

5. While Europe is destroying itself during the Inquisition, what is happening in Safed?

6. Why does a priest, Father Vilspronck, come to Tell Makor in the last chapter?

7. Why does Volkmar the Eighth refuse the terms of the invaders, even if his life would be spared?

8. Who is Muzaffar, and how is he associated with Count Volkmar the Eighth?

9. Describe the trip Volkmar the Eighth takes with his young son.

10. In the chapter "The Tell," what does Cullinane realize about Bar-El as he looks at pictures of her from newspaper clippings?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

One of the structures Cullinane desires to uncover at the dig is a castle. Write about this castle, explaining how and when it got there. During what era was it built? What was Makor like during that time? What does Cullinane determine about the castle?

Essay Topic 2

In each chapter, the author tells stories about different people living in different eras, but he always returns to the present and reveals what is happening at the dig in Makor. How does the present-day archaeological dig serve as a tool that ties the book's diverse stories together?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the unusual friendship between Faraj ibn Ahmed Tabari, governor of Tubariyeh, and the Russian Jew immigrant Shmuel Hacohen. What bonds them together? What do they dislike about each other? Despite their personal dislikes, why do they help each other? How do they support one another?

(see the answer keys)

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