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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What nickname does Munira have among the library clerks?
(a) The harbinger.
(b) The avatar.
(c) The mortician.
(d) The undertaker.

2. What employment rate does Slayd’s replacement probation officer cite her employment center as having?
(a) 93%.
(b) 100%.
(c) 79%.
(d) 86%.

3. What is the name of the family on whose lawn Brahms’s dog defecates before Brahms is presented with Rowan?
(a) Thompson.
(b) Vale.
(c) Worthington.
(d) Smith.

4. What breed of dog does Brahms own?
(a) Chihuahua.
(b) Pekinese.
(c) Maltese.
(d) Dachshund.

5. How long is Tyger suspended for his pool prank?
(a) 3 days.
(b) 3 weeks.
(c) 3 years.
(d) 3 months.

Short Answer Questions

1. Scythe Brahms wears robes of what color/s?

2. In the novel, the word “hubris” is closest in meaning to which of the following?

3. The comment that “Problem-solving was not the scythedom’s strength” (97) offers an example of which of the following?

4. What is the name of the probation officer who replaces Traxler for Slayd?

5. To what age does Scythe Curie suggest resetting her physical self?

Short Essay Questions

1. Xenocrates, “the most important scythe in the region,” notes that he “enjoyed the robe—except on the occasions that its weight became an issue” (19). While he remarks on an example relating to swimming in the note, there is a symbolic meaning to the comment. What is it, and how does it appear?

2. What reason does the Thunderhead give for not accepting responsibility for dealing death?

3. Scythe Brahms observes that “no one should see a scythe so indisposed and live” when a couple sees him bestrewn with rotting food and helps him; instead, he gives them immunity from execution and sends them on their way (11-12). How does the passage serve to reinforce his personal authority?

4. The scythes are noted as having an officer called a Parliamentarian. There is a symbolic component to the presence of such an officer; what is it, and how does it manifest?

5. With what task does Faraday charge Rowan concerning his scythe-killing, and why does he do so?

6. What is the irony in Greyson’s unsavory cousin having “iron chains surgically implanted in his wrists” (102)?

7. Contrast the requirements for entering scythedom and for becoming a Nimbus agent.

8. What reasons does Scythe Curie give for taking an excursion to Endura when Anastasia is excused from gleaning?

9. Rowan notes that “imagination had atrophied.…become vestigial and pointless, like the appendix—which had been removed from the human genome more than a hundred years ago” (15). What does the simile foreshadow will happen within the narrative milieu? How does it do so?

10. The novel notes Rowan’s work “while others prepared for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday” (53), as well as marking other holidays throughout the year (Christmas is mentioned, among others). What does the denotation of what holidays are celebrated suggest about the culture of the narrative milieu?

(see the answer keys)

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