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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. What nickname does Munira have among the library clerks?
2. Why does the Thunderhead avoid taking action to capture Rowan, per Xenocrates’s contact with the Thunderhead?
3. How long was spent reconstructing the Great Library of Alexandria in the novel?
4. How many years does the novel note it takes to become a Nimbus agent?
5. Scythe Brahms wears robes of what color/s?
Short Essay Questions
1. What reasons does the Thunderhead give for the inefficiencies in the Office of Unsavory Affairs?
2. What is the irony in Greyson’s unsavory cousin having “iron chains surgically implanted in his wrists” (102)?
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. What reasons does Xenocrates rehearse for visiting his bathhouse more frequently as the year draws to a close?
5. 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?
6. Why does Anastasia feel the need to call upon Greyson after his denigration to unsavory status, per her report?
7. In his expulsion hearing, Greyson works “to seamlessly begin to paint a convincing fiction” (93-94). What is the primary rhetorical appeal he makes in his presentation, and how is it enacted?
8. What reasons does Scythe Curie give for taking an excursion to Endura when Anastasia is excused from gleaning?
9. The Thunderhead remarks that its Charter Regions are experiments (59). What experiment is it conducting in Texas? What result does it expect?
10. What does Rowan identify as problems with the scythes’ security forces when he confronts Xenocrates in his bath?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Scythe Curie advises “Guard your conscience, Anastasia, and never let it wilt. It is a scythe’s most valuable possession” (191). Does the novel as a whole agree or disagree with the sentiment? What in the text indicates the dis/agreement? How does it do so?
Essay Topic 2
The Thunderhead remarks that “acts taken in anger are intrinsically problematic, and quite often lead to destruction” (443). Does the novel as a whole confirm the remark? What in the text suggests whether it does or not? How does it do so?
Essay Topic 3
The Thunderhead remarks that “Goddard is the most recent in a long line of scythes who look up into the night sky and see not the stars, but the darkness between them” (383). What does it mean to focus on that darkness? What in the text and in experience says so, and how does it say it?
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This section contains 907 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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