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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 the men who seize Rachel and Nathaniel outside the Bark Theater drug them with?

2. What happens to Nathaniel one night in the underground that shakes him and scares him?

3. What is the name of the dance club in Bromley where Nathaniel takes Agnes one night?

4. How does Nathaniel manage to escape from his pursuers in the underground?

5. What does Arthur McCash tell Nathaniel that Nathaniel's mother is doing?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Nathaniel especially remember about his visit to his father's Unilever office?

2. How is Arthur McCash different from other guests who had cycled through Ruvigny Gardens?

3. Why do Nathaniel and Rachel refer to Walter as The Moth?

4. How do Nathaniel and Rachel feel about becoming boarders at their new schools after their mother and father leave for Singapore in Chapter 1?

5. What does Nathaniel think he sees while dancing with Agnes one night at The White Hart club in Bromley?

6. Why is Rachel so upset at the end of Part I of the book, as she and Nathaniel are whisked away from the Bark Theater?

7. Who helps Nathaniel and Rachel during Rachel's first episode with epilepsy, and what does that person do?

8. How did The Moth react when The Darter and Olive Lawrence would fight?

9. What one memorable story does the Moth tell Nathaniel and Rachel about Rose during his time working with Rose in the war?

10. What happens to Nathaniel and Rachel in the beginning of the section titled "Schwer"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How do Nathaniel's journeys on the River Thames with The Darter connect to his later work as an adult with British Intelligence? Write an essay exploring the relationship between these two experiences, citing references to to the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Nathaniel is stunned when he discovers the true reason that The Darter is so curt and cold with him when he visits him at the novel's end. Write an essay exploring Nathaniel's range of feelings towards the Darter from the time he spends with him on the Thames in the novel's beginning to his last visit to the Darter at the novel's end.

Essay Topic 3

In several instances in the novel, Ondaatje uses foreshadowing for dramatic effect. For example, on page 115, he writes, "You take your adult life with you. It is not to be a reliving, but a rewitnessing. Unless of course you wish, like my sister, to damn and enact revenge on the whole pack of them." Write an essay analyzing one or two other examples in which Ondaatje uses foreshadowing to sustain readers' attention and build suspense.

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