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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. How old is Rowan as the novel begins?

2. What color robes does Scythe Anastasia wear?

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

4. What job satisfaction rate does Slayd’s replacement probation officer cite her employment center as having?

5. The first stanza of the nursery rhyme about the Land of Nod, “Let’s all forsake / the Land of Wake, / And break for the Land of Nod” (145) offers an example of which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. The Thunderhead remarks that it hopes to “have the virtual shoulders of Atlas to bear” what it describes as “very literally, the weight of the world” (167). There is an error in the phrasing; what is it, and why is it wrong?

3. 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?

4. The Thunderhead rebukes its administration for desiring more ostentatious buildings (69-70). Why, per the text, does it do so?

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

6. 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?

7. What does Rowan identify as problems with the scythes’ security forces when he confronts Xenocrates in his bath?

8. Why is it irony, as the Thunderhead remarks, “that with no body, the world itself becomes [its] body” (75)?

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

10. Why does Munira carry the nickname among the library clerks that she does?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

It is clear that the novel belongs to the genre of young adult fiction. It is also clear that the novel belongs to the genre of science fiction. Explain how it does so, noting ways in which it follows and fails to follow conventions of the genre. (Note that being able to do so entails being able to articulate those conventions, likely with illustrative examples.)

Essay Topic 2

Consider the following exchange:

“Yes, but the crystalline appearance of the tower pinnacles is beautiful, isn’t it?”

Xenocrates harrumphed at that. “Isn’t form supposed to follow function?”

“Not in the scythedom,” replied his valet (408).

Does the novel as a whole support the assertion? What in the text suggests whether it does or not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the following exchange:

“I know the things the Tonists believe are ridiculous,” Citra said, “but I suppose to some people, there’s something compelling about them.”

“That’s what turkeys thing about the rain,” Marie pointed out. “They raise their eyes heavenward, open up their beaks, and drown.”

“Not the turkeys the Thunderhead grows,” said Citra.

Marie nodded. “My point exactly” (240).

Trace out the implications of the exchange for those who adhere to Tonism and those who do not. What is implied? What in the text suggests it? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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