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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. The comment that “as much as [Greyson] loved the Thunderhead, he hated it right now” (95) offers an example of which of the following?

2. Which of the following can cause a permanent death in the novel?

3. Which section of the Separation of Scythe and State is violated by Greyson interfering in the attempt on Scythes Curie and Anastasia?

4. How long is Rowan disallowed public transit due to his outbursts when talking with his mother?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What reasons does Sir Albin Aldrich give for wanting to be gleaned during a performance of Julius Caesar?

3. At first glance, the term “deadish” that appears throughout the novel might seem to be a euphemism; the “ish” suffix tends to be one that mitigates the effect or impact of the stem word to which it is attached. Why, however, is it NOT an example of euphemism?

4. Scythe Brahms observes that “five highly developed senses could often have the semblance of a sixth” (6). To what sixth sense does Brahms refer? What purpose might its denial serve for the genre?

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

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

7. What reasons does Scythe Constantine give for the scythedom’s efforts to protect Anastasia when she is excused from gleaning?

8. 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?

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. What possibilities for maintaining Earth’s human population count does the Thunderhead foresee, and why are they problems?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As Greyson begins his stint as an unsavory, he relates a number of conditions under which the unsavory must live: they are disallowed direct contact with the Thunderhead, they have probation officers with whom they must check in, they receive discourteous service from automata, and they suffer under social stigma. Of them, which is the worst in the context of the novel? What in the text suggests it is so? How does it do so?

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

It is remarked that the rebuilt Great Library of Alexandria serves as a repository for journals the scythes are required to keep throughout their lifetimes of service in “leather-bound parchment volumes” (146). What function would such journals and their repository serve within the narrative milieu? What in the text suggests as much? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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