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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 is the name of the body of water named in honor of Charles Darwin?

2. According to the narrator, what two animals keep the human population nice and manageable, and nobody starves?

3. What was the narrator's father's occupation?

4. Who disconnects the El Dorado's phones in Chapter 25?

5. When Wait considered himself old enough to run away, he hitchhiked to __________.

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do blue-footed boobies dance the way they do in courtship?

2. Describe the city of Guayaquil as it is described in Chapter 1.

3. In Chapter 3, how is Charles Darwin described?

4. When does Adolf von Kleist tell Mary Hepburn that he might be a carrier of Huntington's chorea?

5. Describe the Hotel El Dorado.

6. Does Mary Hepburn want to go to the Galapagos Islands? Explain.

7. How do people describe their brains in Chapter 6?

8. Why does the narrator choose the Captain's head to get into in Chapter 23?

9. What two promises does Roy Hepburn ask his wife to keep on his deathbed?

10. In Chapter 9, what is Roy Hepburn's dying compared to? Explain.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Theories of how animals landed on the Galapagos Islands vary from transportation via rafts to religious phenomena. Discuss at least three theories revealed in the text as to how animals landed on the Islands; to what extent can these theories be proven? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss sensuality, sexuality, and fertility as it pertains to the novel. Be sure to give at least one example of each from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the importance of the Afterlife to the novel. What does the Afterlife look like? Do the characters have a choice to enter into the Afterlife? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 672 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample