Three Skeleton Key Questions – Flashcards
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Why does the narrator take the job at Three Skeleton Key?
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He wants to set aside money before he gets married.
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Why does the island bare a bad reputation?
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Three convicts who, escaping from Cayenne in a stolen dugout canoe, were wrecked on the rock during the night, managed to escape the sea, but eventually died of hunger and thirst.
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What kind of story is this?
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A fiction and a horror story.
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Where did the story take place? (Describe the setting)
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Off the coast of French Guiana, in a newly built lighthouse.
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Why was it unusual for the lighthouse keepers to see a ship in their waters?
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The waters are dangerous / treacherous
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How does the narrator convince is that the sea rats in the story are the worst possible sort?
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Not those poor speciments of the rats you see ashore, barley reaching the length of one foot from their trembling noses to the tip of their skinny tails, wretched creatures that dodge and hide at the mere sound of a footfall.
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Why does the narrator watch the Cornelius de Witt with tears in his eyes?
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He knows the ship is about to be wrecked.
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Why do you think they heard the rats screeching, "Six skeletons, six skeletons?"
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They had not eaten or slept and their minds were playing tricks on them.
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How do the rats get inside the lighthouse?
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The metal sheeting that was sealing the window gives away.
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Why do the officers and the crew of the first patrol boat look at the lighthouse with a horrible expression?
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The lighthouse was completely covered with rats.
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What strategies are used to rescue the three men from the island?
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- the crew tempts the rats into a barge filled with meat
- the crew set the meat on fire while the rats are eating it
- the crew shoot any escaping rats and leave the rest to be eaten by the sharks
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What becomes of the three lighthouse attendants?
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- Le Gleo' s mind had cracked and he was raving mad. They sent him back to France and locked him in an asylum, the poor devil.
- Itchoua died within a week; a rats bite is dangerous in that hot humid climate, and infection sets in rapidly.
