View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Orwell say the fillers looked like?

2. To what did Orwell compare the sound of the conveyor belt in the mine?

3. What did Mr. Brooker do while grumbling that it was "women's work?"

4. What did each of the permanent lodgers get for their ten shillings a week rent?

5. What kind of shop was attached to the Brooker's boarding house?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who were the newspaper canvassers, and what were their jobs?

2. How did Orwell describe the housing in the industrial towns of England? When were most of the houses built?

3. Why did Orwell make the comparison between the miner's wages and the amount of coal and money the coal mines produce? What did he want the reader to understand?

4. What is nystagmus? How is it contracted? How is it cured? What happened to a miner in Orwell's time who contracted nystagmus?

5. Why did Orwell believe that our civilization is founded on coal? How did he relate this belief to the coal miner?

6. Why did Orwell leave the Brookers? Where did he go? How did he respond to his train trip leaving town?

7. There were three shift in the mines Orwell discussed. What happened in each of the three shifts?

8. What were some of the common conditions in the houses Orwell studied for his book?

9. Who were the Brookers? How did Orwell describe them? What did they look like? Behave like?

10. Who were some of the boarders at the Brooker's rooming house? How were thought of by the Brookers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In his descriptions of unemployment in the middle and working classes, Orwell explained that the men and their families in each class had a vastly different reaction to the condition. Orwell contended that the working class man was better equipped to lose his job and become unemployed than the middle class man. What were some of the reasons Orwell cited for this? Can you find proof in studying the middle and working classes to support Orwell's contention that one class was better equipped than another to be out of work?

Essay Topic 2

In the first chapter, Orwell described the meals provided by the Brookers to their lodgers. These meals were non-nutritious and in no way sated a man's hunger. How is this nutritional issue symbolic of other themes in his book, such as the poor and the country's need for Socialism?

Essay Topic 3

Orwell described the working class man and said "he does not act. He is acted upon." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? Use examples from the reading.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,432 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample