Dicken's Map

1) I am reading A Tale of Two Cities, which happens to be 320 pages long. That means I need to read an average of 50 pages a day in order to finish it, and give myself enough time to fully review the book.
2)A. A Tale of Two Cities opens with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." one of the best-known passages in English literature. What does Dickens mean by setting the stage with such polarities? For whom was it the best and the worst of times? Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in the late 1850s. Why does this passage continue to be quoted today? In what ways does our own present period merit such an assessment? Found here.
B. How does the author use imagery, syntax, and diction to show his intent in the following passage from A Tale of Two Cities?

But, though the Doctor tried hard, and never ceased trying, to get Charles Darnay set at liberty, or at least to get him brought to trial, the public current of the time set too strong and fast for him. The new era began; the king was tried, doomed, and beheaded; the Republic of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death, declared for victory or death against the world in arms; the black flag waved night and day from the great towers of Notre Dame; three hundred thousand men, summoned to rise against the tyrants of the earth, rose from all the varying soils of France, as if the dragon's teeth had been sown broadcast, and had yielded fruit equally on hill and plain, on rock, in gravel, and alluvial mud, under the bright sky of the South and under the clouds of the North, in fell and forest, in the vineyards and the olive-grounds and among the cropped grass and the
stubble of the corn, along the fruitful banks of the broad rivers, and in the sand of the sea-shore. What private solicitude could rear itself against the deluge of the Year One of Liberty—the deluge rising from below, not falling from above, and with the windows of Heaven shut, not opened! 

There was no pause, no pity, no peace, no interval of relenting rest, no measurement of time. Though days and nights circled as regularly as when time was young, and the evening and morning were the first day, other count of time there was none. Hold of it was lost in the raging fever of a nation, as it is in the fever of one patient. Now, breaking the unnatural silence of a whole city, the executioner showed the people the head of the king—and now, it seemed almost in the same breath, the head of his fair wife which had had eight weary months of imprisoned widowhood and misery, to turn it grey. Found here.
C. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake.  Choose a scene in A Tale of Two Cities that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary. 
D. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) wrote:
“Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate’er it touches”
        Using examples from A Tale of Two Cities as support, you should defend or challenge Shelley’s assertion.
E. Choose a complex and important character in A Tale of Two Cities who might - on the basis of the character's actions alone - be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary.

3) The best way to test us is, I feel, is to have an essay. Tests are too easy and too limited, and (as with multiple choice) allow students to get answers correct even if they never knew the material beforehand. They also force upon the student the teacher's interpretation of ideas, which may or may not agree with the student. An essay allows each student to encompass their viewpoints and back them up, which allows for more productive sessions and varying viewpoints as opposed to one.