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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the narrator's condition when he goes to the theater in London?
(a) He is bored and overfed.
(b) He is well-fed and relaxed.
(c) He is broke and alone.
(d) He is comfortable and among friends.

2. What human assumption does Melville say is the most preposterous?
(a) Understanding of the poor by the rich.
(b) Criticism of the poor by the rich.
(c) Understanding of the rich by the poor.
(d) Criticism of the rich by the poor.

3. Why doesn't the narrator dismiss Bartleby for insubordination?
(a) Bartleby promises to improve.
(b) Bartleby is obviously emotionally upset.
(c) Bartleby is distressed.
(d) Bartleby is calm, showing no emotion.

4. Why does the Town-Ho's captain have to put the ship into port?
(a) It has sprung a leak.
(b) It has run out of supplies.
(c) There has been a mutiny on board.
(d) Its crewmen are ill with scurvy.

5. What happens to the rooster when the Merrymusk family dies?
(a) The rooster goes home with the narrator.
(b) The rooster dies too.
(c) The rooster is sold for five hundred dollars.
(d) The rooster crows on the graves.

Short Answer Questions

1. What emotion does the narrator of "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo?" say he has never felt since the rooster died?

2. What are the two failings the narrator sees in his middle-aged scrivener?

3. What action does Steelkilt determine to take after being locked in the hold?

4. What has the uncle in "The Happy Failure" invented?

5. What was the message of the church meeting the narrator observed?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was disrespectful about Radney asking Steelkilt to sweep the deck?

2. What stylistic devices does Melville use to give the reader the feeling of the rooster's crow in "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo"?

3. Why does Melville refer to Oberlus as "a creature whom it is religion to detest?"

4. What verb tenses does Melville use in "The Two Temples" to bring immediacy to the story?

5. What are Turkey's shortcomings as a scrivener?

6. Why is the direct route for an ocean voyage not always the fastest or best, according to Melville in "The Encantadas"?

7. What is Nippers's shortcoming as a scrivener?

8. Why does the narrator continue to accept Bartleby's refusals?

9. What does the author of "Poor Man's Pudding" and "Rich Man's Crumbs" pray that Heaven will save him from?

10. How does the poet Blandmour feel about poverty in "Poor Man's Pudding"?

(see the answer keys)

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