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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 region of the brain is missing from the security guard autopsied in Chapter 23?

2. What delays the help Beauregard calls for in Chapter 22?

3. What happens to Ven at the end of Chapter 2?

4. Who developed the theory of myth triangulation?

5. Who calls Margo in Chapter 11 that leaves her emotionally drained and upset?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Pendergast require of Dr. Wright in order to begin a successful investigation into the murders in the museum?

2. Why does Smithback suggest the search for a killer in the museum would be nearly impossible?

3. What does Smithback ask Kawakita to help him with in Chapter 25? Why does Kawakita refuse?

4. What connection between the killer and the Mbwun figurine does Margo make in Chapter 25?

5. In what year does Whittlesey's expedition take place? How long is this before the events depicted in the rest of the novel?

6. What is a ballistics analysis and why does Pendergast suggest one be done on the blood at the crime scene in Chapter 14?

7. What are the three conditions Rickman gave to Smithback in the writing of his book in Chapter 13?

8. What is the Callisto Effect?

9. What does Margo Green find when she reports for work on Monday morning in Chapter 3?

10. What does Margo smell in the Superstition Exhibit hall that frightens her? Where has the reader heard of this scent previously in the novel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss scientific expeditions. What are they? What is the purpose of an expedition? Who goes on these expeditions? Are they restricted just to scientists? What happens to the artifacts taken during these expeditions? For what purpose are these artifacts taken? Should they be taken? Compare and contrast a real expedition with the Whittlesey expedition discussed in this novel. For example, compare the Whittlesey expedition with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Discuss the details of each, what the explorers hoped to find, and what the end result was. What did each of these expeditions do for civilization?

Essay Topic 2

What is Kawakita's computer program? What does it do? Why did Kawakita create the program? How does the program relate to his field of study? To his dissertation? What does Margo use the computer program to do? Does it help her with her dissertation? What else does she learn from the program? What does Dr. Frock run through the program? What does it tell them about the creature that is terrorizing the museum? Does this information help them to catch it? Later, what does Kawakita find in the computer program? What does he use this information to do? What possible impact will this action have on the people of New York?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following themes in detail:

1) Survival Instinct

2) Ambition

3) Responsibility

4) Scientific Theory

5) Genetic Mutation

(see the answer keys)

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