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THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM

History is an argument without end.

Review Questions

Vocabulary:
define, commemorate, dauntless, paraphrase, phantasm, lamented, grapple, claymore, reigning, lavish, coveted, stratagem, manoeuvre, fusillade, furtively, fortitude, composure, disorient, frenetic, cynical, fortune, pugnacious, compensated, ramparts, expedient, strategem, republican, largess, aristocrat, pandemonium.

1. Name and explain each of the following figures of speech: (a) a motionless red wall. (b) a rampart of redcoats; (c) their past grandeur they were seeing buried; (d) grapple hand to hand with death; (e) dispersed like wisps of vapour; (f) standing like stone statues.

2.Explain: (a) lavish of my life; (b) meet the fate which is the ordinary effect of such conduct; (c) without discipline there can be no cohesion; (d) the confrontation he coveted; (e) put money where his mouth was; (f) one of Canada's most pivotal battles; (g) echoes and re-echoes down through history; (h) unflinching fortitude; (i) fortune offered herself to Montcalm in mocking and cynical disguise; (j) scouts and skirmishers; (k) kept up a galling though irregular fire; (l) wily warriors; (m) disorient the French soldiers; (n) as time dripped out its last scarlet minutes; (o)his valiant spirit fled; (p) offers to flag.

3. Why did the actions of the Canadians cause the French regulars to break rank?

4.(a) What is resolve? (b)What occurred when the French regulars lost their resolve? (b) Why do you think this happened?

5.Wolfe rebuked his doctors as he lay ill. Write an imaginary description of this scene and explain why you think Wolfe rebuked his doctors.

6. What made Wolfe so popular with his men?

7.Why do you think the current Marquis de Montcalm described the ceremony as 'extraordinary'?

8.The current Marquis de Montcalm said "we should do the same for him (Wolfe)." He appears to be suggesting that Wolfe be reburied at the same location in Quebec. Do you think Wolfe would have wanted this? Why or why not?

9.(a) Explain Premier Laundry's statement: "a war which brutally changed the course of our collective destinyand of all North America." (b) Revisionist history is popular today. What is it? (c) Write a revisionist version of this battle and describe how things would have been different.

10.Does the definition "History is an argument without end" apply to this narrative? Why or why not?

11.How does Wolfe's fame validate the statement, "History's heroes required the great moment."

12. (a) What did Napoleon mean when he said in war, it is not men but the man who is everything? (b) Evaluate this assertion.

13. Why would the most precious quality for a soldier in war be 'calm during anger'?

14. As a general why would you want the 'fire and sword' to 'march in the vanguard'?

15. What novel strategem was used in this battle? Did it result in what Churchill forecast? Explain.

16. "He had fulfilled the task destiny had assigned him." (a) What is destiny? (b) Explain how it can assign a task?

17. This was a battle that turned the tables. Explain.

18. What does censure mean? Do you agree that the brigadiers should be open to censure because of their behaviour towards Wolfe? Defend your answer.

(a) Why do you think 'gloomy' Wolfe liked this quotation from Grey's Elegy? (b) What does it mean to you? "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty and wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour,
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

19. (a) What does manoeuvre mean to a military officer? (b) What is there about manoeuvre that would lead to less loss of life during a battle?

20.

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