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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 do they discover on the cliff face above them?

2. What is Smithback's job at Quivira?

3. What does Skip go back to the old farmhouse for?

4. What does Swire do to the two horses that Nora and Smithback take?

5. What frightens Nora and Sloane as they proceed ahead to reconnoiter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is so important about the letter Nora finds from her father?

2. What does Dr. Blakewood want Nora to do when she tells him about her father's letter?

3. Why does Nora ask that the expedition be kept a secret?

4. Why does John leave Nora and Bill so suddenly?

5. How does John tell them that a person becomes a witch?

6. Why does Nora discover only a single moqui step?

7. How does Nora want to fund the expedition to follow in her father's footsteps to Quivira?

8. What incidents cause tensions to flare between Nora and Sloane?

9. Why did Nora Kelly's mother have such a low opinion of her husband, Padraic?

10. Why was the ridge Nora was seeking called the Devil's Backbone?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Black and Sloane both report the day's weather as being clear for the day when they have both witnessed evidence to the contrary. Each has different reasons for their omission. Explain them. Why is Sloane so determined to stay? What motivates Black's behavior? It is easy to see that neither is motivated solely by the desire to explore the Kiva, so what is the common factor that is behind their omission? (Nora is motivated by the same desire when she is determined to leave but each has different focal points)

Essay Topic 2

Overall, this book could be said to contain several morals. What are they? What specific lessons are learned? Obstacles overcome? Closures attained? What would you say is the overall message of this novel? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Two characters begin timidly but redeem themselves. Who are they? Naming each, explain why they are reluctant heroes and then describe the acts of courage that occur. How does their lives changes as a direct result of that heroism? In each case, putting yourself in that character's shoes, could you have risen to the occasion? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 898 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample