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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 does Summer escape the seamount?

2. How is the rescue team tracking the submarine's location?

3. Who are the two men waiting for Dirk in the torpedo room as he tries to escape the submarine with SN Farris?

4. Who is "Big Daddy?"

5. How many of Them attack Dirk and Adrian?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the two most important words in the English language according to Dirk? How do they serve Dirk in the battle with the men from the sea in his hotel room?

2. What does LT Robert Buckmaster discover at the old Army installation, which supposedly belongs to Delphi that partially explains the entirely unexpected fierce resistance to Marine's invasion? How might this situation have come to be?

3. There are three operations, with different codenames going on simultaneously in Chapter 16. What are their different codenames and objectives?

4. How is the scent of the eucalyptus oil explained? How does it support the theory of the seamount?

5. How do Summer's divided loyalties express themselves in their final moments in the doomed seamount as the missiles hit and the mountain begins to crumble?

6. How does LCDR Crowhaven's attitude change from his frame of mind on the plane, once he is within sight of the submarine and Dirk lets him know that this is where he [Dirk] gets off?

7. How do Dirk and LCDR Boland differ over how to wage battle against the men from the sea as they face impending attack on the Martha Ann?

8. Besides Dirk's lost love, what does Summer represent to the Navy and why would it have been important to rescue her?

9. Who or what is Selma Snoop?

10. What are ADM Hunter and Dirk Pitt's differing opinions on Adrian?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Pacific Vortex! is the first Dirk Pitt novel Clive Cussler wrote (even though it is published much later, after several other Pitt adventures) and indeed it shows signs of being a novice attempt. The character development is somewhat sporadic, there are questions or plot mysteries that are later left unanswered and some scenes that almost seem extraneous which are only loosely tied together by the final explanation. Characterize some of these "novice" elements using firm examples from the book. At the end, is there anything you wondered, "yes, but what about...?" How could Cussler have woven these plot threads or characters more tightly into the fabric of the story?

Essay Topic 2

Dirk Pitt's National Underwater and Marine Agency actually exists. Clive Cussler founded it and it is run by himself and his son. What are the differences between the real NUMA and Dirk Pitt's NUMA? How are the character of Dirk Pitt and his NUMA representative of perhaps a deep seeded fantasy for the author, things he would really like to do and have exist? Are perhaps some of the events in the story autobiographical or merely a dream?

Essay Topic 3

Examined carefully, the association between Dirk's reason for visiting to the Polynesian history museum and George Papaaloa's story of Kanoli is slightly obscure except as a plot mechanism. There is nothing Papaaloa relates in the story of Kanoli to suggest that it is related to the Pacific Vortex. The relevance of this revelation seems somewhat abstract. This is especially true since the Vortex has only been "operational" for about 40 years. Rewrite this episode using the essence of the legend of Kanoli as it stands but add elements that allow the two stories to appear related, making the transition from one to the other more smoothly.

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