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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 direction do the winds blow from in the trades for seventy percent of the year?

2. Which one of the following is not a whale ship that the Hero encounters on its way to Chile?

3. How many men choose to stay on the island at the end of Chapter 9?

4. What does Chase encounter at the end of Chapter 10?

5. What do the men begin losing on their first morning on the island?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to Chase at the end of his life?

2. How does Chase's boat deal with a shark attack?

3. Who attends the dinner on the night Pollard is rescued, and what does Pollard discuss with Aaron Paddack later that night?

4. What is Chase's initial opinion about staying on the island in Chapter 9?

5. What happens to Hendricks' boat?

6. Why do the men resort to cannibalism in Chapter 11, and what is the irony of their situation?

7. How are Wright, Weeks, and Chappel rescued from Henderson Island?

8. What happens at the end of Chapter 11 when lots are drawn in Pollard's boat?

9. How does Pollard's whaling career end, and how is he remembered?

10. What is the crew concerned about as it sees land in the beginning of Chapter 9?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Henderson Island is a key point in the crew's effort to make it to South America.

1) Explain what leads the crew to Henderson Island and why they are confused about the island's identity.

2) Describe the crew's time on the island and the important things that they discover there.

3) Analyze the decision made by three crew members to remain of the island in comparison to the decision made by the majority of the crew to leave.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze three possible theories about why the whale might have attacked the Essex. Use the book to reference the sources of these theories and the reasons behind them. Also, explain which one you think is the most logical and why.

Essay Topic 3

In the Preface, a general background of whaling is provided by Philbrick.

1) Describe the purpose of the Preface and the literary reasons for the information it includes.

2) Explain why sailors from Nantucket hunted whales and how the whales are typically killed.

3) Analyze the sperm whales as they are presented in the Preface along with why they are specifically targeted by whalers.

(see the answer keys)

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