Cinder

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-4

Reading Check

1. What kind of a being is Cinder?

2. What is the name of Cinder’s younger stepsister and human friend?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Cinder know when Adri lies to her about the ball?

2. What important antique item does Cinder discover at the junkyard, and what do she and Iko hope to do with it?

Chapters 5-8

Reading Check

1. Whom does Adri blame for Peony’s infection with the plague?

2. What is Cinder injected with in the laboratory in Chapter 8?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why can Cinder catch the plague, while Iko is immune?

2. What job does Dmitri Erland do?

Paired Resource

“How We'll Become Cyborgs and Extend Human Potential”

• 15-minute TED Talk by MIT scientist Hugh Herr about developments in bionic technology
• This content relates to the themes of Social Hierarchy: Humans, Cyborgs, and Androids and Technology.
• Does the information in Dr. Herr’s talk surprise you in any way? What are the benefits that Cinder gets from her bionic technology? What are the drawbacks? From the information in Dr. Herr’s lecture, does it seem like Cinder’s situation is a realistic vision of our future?

Chapters 9-12

Reading Check

1. What surprising thing do the doctors discover in Cinder’s spine?

2. In Chapter 11, whom does Erland agree will be the first and second recipients of the antidote?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In Chapter 10, what question does Cinder keep asking that the medical staff keeps ignoring?

2. In Chapter 12, what does Prince Kai say supposedly happened to Queen Lavena’s niece, and what rumor has he heard about the girl?

Chapters 13-16

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 14, what does Erland tell Prince Kai caused Cinder to fall?

2. From whom does Prince Kai get a message right after his father dies?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What test does Erland perform in Chapter 13 that causes Cinder so much pain?

2. What does Iko suggest that Cinder do with the money she earned as a research subject?

Paired Resource

“Human Experiments–The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” by Anthony Wrigley

• A review of the ethics involved in experimentation on human subjects
• This content relates to the theme of Fear of Disease.
• In what ways do the experiments performed on Cinder fail to meet the ethical standards for experimentation on human subjects discussed in this article? Do you guess that standards have changed by the time in which the story takes place, or do the experimenters simply not view Cinder as “human”? On what evidence from the text are you basing your guess? Are there circumstances under which you, personally, would argue that a cyborg should not qualify for the rights extended to human beings?

Chapters 17-20

Reading Check

1. What item does Peony ask for when Cinder visits her in Chapter 17?

2. In Chapter 19, what item removed from a dead person in quarantine does Cinder ask the doctor about?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Prince Kai’s request to Cinder regarding his android, Nainsi, make Cinder wonder?

2. In Chapter 20, what warning does Torin give Prince Kai about Queen Levana’s glamour?

Chapters 21-25

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 22, what are the people outside the palace protesting?

2. What affects Cinder in a way that makes her suspect she may not actually be Lunar?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What joke does Iko make about the source of Nainsi’s breakdown?

2. In Chapter 23, when does Prince Kai say he will start searching for the Lunar refugee?

Paired Resource

Henry V’s “Upon the king!”  soliloquy (The Life of King Henry the Fifth, Act 4, Scene 1)

• A 3-minute video of Samuel West performing this speech
• This content relates to the theme of Sacrifice.
• This speech takes place the night before King Henry must lead troops into a battle in which they are badly outnumbered. What does the speech suggest he is feeling? What does he have to say about the expectations that go along with being a ruler? What textual evidence from Cinder tells you whether Prince Kai feels burdened by people’s expectations of him? How does Prince Kai’s situation compare to King Henry’s?

Chapters 26-29

Reading Check

1. What word do the leaders at the meeting in Chapter 26 use to describe the Lunars in the pictures they look at?

2. What does Prince Kai suspect is the real reason that Queen Levana dislikes androids?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. To whom does Cinder give the antidote in Chapter 27, and why?

2. When Adri asks Cinder why she was at the palace, what does Cinder realize?

Chapters 30-34

Reading Check

1. What job is Cinder completing as she watches Kai’s coronation?

2. What physical problem causes Cinder’s difficulties when she dances with Emperor Kai at the ball?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Cinder plan to fulfill her promise of bringing Iko and Peony along when she escapes from New Beijing?

2. What surprise does Cinder get when the servant scans her ID at the ball?

Paired Resource

“The Relational Paradox: The Deep Hurt of Hiding Your True Self”

• A 9-minute video from Science of People discussing the perils of inauthenticity in relationships
• This content relates to the theme of Concealing One’s Identity.
• What are the key ideas that this video shares about hiding one’s true self in relationships? How do these ideas apply to Cinder’s situation? Based on this video, what advice would you offer Cinder about her relationship with Kai?

Chapters 35-38

Reading Check

1. What secret does Queen Levana tell Emperor Kai about Cinder in Chapter 35?

2. Where does Erland tell Cinder he plans to escape to?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. At the end of Chapter 26, what does Emperor Kai agree to do in order to avert a war with Luna?

2. What plans does Erland have for Cinder because of her true identity?

Recommended Next Reads

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

• In this next book in Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and two new acquaintances, Scarlet and Wolf, are on the run from Queen Levana and her evil plans.
• Shared topics include adapted fairy tales, friendship, and the damage of lying within relationships.
• Shared themes include Social Hierarchy: Humans, Cyborgs, and Androids; Sacrifice; and Concealing One’s Identity.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

• Dystopian portrait of an android called Klara and her relationship with a sick child
• Shared topics include the isolation of being different, friendship, and death.
• Shared themes include Social Hierarchy: Humans, Cyborgs, and Androids; Sacrifice; Fear of Disease; and Technology.
• Klara and the Sun on SuperSummary