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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 many of the scythedom’s guards accompany Constantine to question Greyson?

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

3. The comment that “it lived by the laws it levied” (95) offers an example of which of the following?

4. How many years does the novel note it takes to become a Nimbus agent?

5. What color robes does Scythe Curie wear?

Short Essay Questions

1. The Thunderhead remarks that its Charter Regions are experiments (59). What experiment is it conducting in Texas? What result does it expect?

2. What reasons does Xenocrates rehearse for visiting his bathhouse more frequently as the year draws to a close?

3. What reasons does the Thunderhead give for the inefficiencies in the Office of Unsavory Affairs?

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

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

6. 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?

7. How does Purity verify Slayd’s identity, and why does she do so?

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

9. Anastasia notes that the site of the Mortality Memorial is “a city underserved by the scythedom” because it “was too macabre for them” and “in very poor taste” (45). Why would scythes, whose work is in killing people, find celebrations of death macabre and in poor taste, per the novel?

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

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

The Thunderhead notes, “To deny humanity the lesson of consequences would be a mistake” (489). Is the Thunderhead’s assessment accurate? What in the text and in experience suggests whether it is 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?

(see the answer keys)

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