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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 Poor Man's Pudding?
(a) Milk, eggs, and sugar.
(b) Flour, sugar, cinnamon, and milk.
(c) Water, salt, and flour.
(d) Rice, milk, and salt.

2. Whose job is it to normally sweep the deck of a ship?
(a) All members of the work gangs.
(b) The lowest seaman.
(c) The boys on board.
(d) The men on watch.

3. What does the crew decide to do after Steelkilt is flogged?
(a) Obey the captain.
(b) Murder Radney.
(c) Desert together.
(d) Start a mutiny.

4. What does a scrivener do?
(a) Organizes court records.
(b) Researches legal precedents.
(c) Makes copies of legal documents.
(d) Records testimony in court.

5. What animal does Melville claim is not at home at sea, on land, or in the air?
(a) The walrus.
(b) The cormorant.
(c) The penguin.
(d) The bat.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the narrator accommodate the weakness of his oldest scrivener?

2. What age is the narrator of Bartleby?

3. Who is the worst enemy of the narrator of "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo?"

4. What does Steelkilt threaten to do if he is flogged by the captain?

5. Why does the captain decide not to flog Steelkilt?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How is the accuracy of copy verified by scriveners?

3. What purpose does the circle of listeners serve in "The Town-Ho's Story"?

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

5. Why does the narrator say that pity turns into repulsion?

6. In "The Happy Failure," what is the uncle's great invention?

7. What do the sailors in "The Encantadas" do with tortoises?

8. Why did the first seven of Steelkilt's men come out of their imprisonment?

9. In "Rich Man's Crumbs," why is the narrator called a "graceless ragamuffin"?

10. What does the captain decide to do with Steelkilt and those who followed him in insubordination?

(see the answer keys)

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