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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. To what staff does Tarrant belong?

2. Who comes down from the heights to support the Scottish hit by a surprise silent attack on Fuentes de Onoro?

3. What do the Spanish say about San Isidoro?

4. What does Loup tell the men about the wounded?

5. Why do some of the soldiers prowl through the bodies after the battle?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Kiely's reaction to Juanita being caught by Sharpe?

2. How does Hogan set up confronting Father Sarsfield?

3. What type of superstitious action does Harper take?

4. What do Hogan and Wellington decide about Sharpe and the battle at Isidoro?

5. What does Hogan tell Wellington about the French and Almeida?

6. Who are the three soldiers in charge of ammunition distribution? Why are two of the soldiers on that duty and what are their names?

7. Why is Sharpe being subjected to a board of inquiry?

8. Why is Wellington enraged with Erkins?

9. What do the French do at the church in Nave de Haver?

10. What does Hogan say to Sarsfield?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Most of the French are gone when Sharpe and his men arrive at a small settlement, except for two men who are raping a young Spanish girl in one of the cottages. Sharpe and Harper enter the rest of the cottages and find a number of Spanish civilians have been slaughtered, some tortured and raped and many of them children. Sharpe gathers his men and prepares to execute the two Frenchmen who are left. Sharpe has the two prisoners put up against a wall and shot.

1. Discuss the differences between how a soldier who rapes and murders during war might behave in his own home. For example, do you think if a man who became a rapist and a murderer in war would have been a murderer and rapist had he never gone to war? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think what Sharpe did with the two French prisoners was right or wrong? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. It is obvious from Sharpe's encounter with Loup that Loup encouraged or at least allowed his men to rape, torture and murder. Why do you think Sharpe did not kill Loup when he killed the two prisoners? Loup was under a flag of truce, but Sharpe had already broken the rules of war by executing the prisoners. Discuss the difference Sharpe may have seen between executing two prisoners and honoring a flag of truce. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Most protagonists are a mixture of admirable traits and character flaws, and Richard Sharpe is no exception. Sharpe's legendary powers of military strategy is juxtaposed with his reputation as a womanzier. Discuss the following:

1. Trace and analyze situations when Sharpe demonstrates his prodigious powers of military strategy. Give specific examples to illustrate your analysis.

2. Trace and analyze Sharpe's character flaws offering specific examples of these flaws in your discussion.

3. Discuss how you think Sharpe's admirable traits helped him obtain a high rank in the military despite his background as a child. Have his flaws impacted his career at all? Do any of those under his command seem to notice these flaws? Who? How does the reader know this?

Essay Topic 3

Cornwell has tried as much as possible to use historical events and facts around which to weave his work of fiction. Discuss the following:

1. Do you think Sharpe's Battle qualifies as an historical fiction? Why or why not?

2. If much of the events in Sharpe's Battle are historical, what surprises you about the way the events play out?

3. Do you think the culture of that era is more or less advanced than you imagined? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

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