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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. The bomb The Professor carries on his person at all times is designed to kill anyone within how many feet of him?

2. What does Mr. Verloc do when he returns home immediately after the meeting with Mr. Vladimir in which he learns his monthly income checks are in jeopardy.

3. What is it the professor tells Ossipon he must sometimes do in seeking his goal?

4. In the morgue, what does Heat find among the yet-to-be-identified remains retrieved from the Greenwich Park bombing scene?

5. The Secret Agent is a novel centered on the attempt in 1894 to destroy what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the professor describe as his goal and what does it take to achieve it?

2. As described at the conclusion of Chapter 5, what habit does the Assistant Commissioner have that comforts him the most?

3. How is Mr. Verloc described at the start of Chapter 2?

4. What are some of Karl Yundt's outstanding characteristics?

5. How does Ossipon learn it was Mr. Verloc who obtained explosives from the professor, and what is his reaction?

6. What is Ossipon's view of Mrs. Verloc's sibling?

7. Describe what act done by Chief Inspector Heat is detailed and defined as not particularly wise?

8. How is the individual whom the professor encounters in the alley at the beginning of Chapter 5 described?

9. What is Mr. Verloc's attitude toward Mrs. Verloc's lone sibling?

10. Describe the task undertaken by Chief Inspector Heat and what he views as a critical item he locates?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Adolf Verloc is found to be a French spy by the second chapter. But it is not until Chapter 6 that the reader learns he has also been an informant for Chief Inspector Heat. By the end of Chapter 5 it is know that the bomb victim was not Heat as thought possible in Chapter 4, but who is it then? Examine how Conrad uses surprise and secrecy throughout his novel.

Essay Topic 2

Conrad skillfully uses dilemmas faced by characters within his novel. These are situations where the characters must make choices that have consequences. At the start of the story, Mr. Verloc must choose whether he will satisfy Mr. Vladimir's desire for the bombing of a science center, or risk losing his financial support and possibly his well-being. Select four situations where characters face dilemmas. Detail the choices that must be made, the consequences they need to consider, and what motivates them to take the paths they choose. Do any of them have the same motivation(s)?

Essay Topic 3

Ossipon is introduced in Chapter 3 during the meeting in Mr. Verloc's parlor. The professor is introduced when he is met by chance by Ossipon at the Silenus beer-hall in Chapter 4. The pair are detailed at length through their encounter in this chapter. At the end of the novel the pair again go to the Silenus. Explore and compare each of these character's dispositions, what changes have occurred by the final chapter, and why.

(see the answer keys)

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