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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 think would remind him that our age was not been a bad one to live in?

2. What did Orwell find amazing about the unemployed men he met after returning from Burma?

3. What common feeling was shared by all of the different factions of the middle class in England?

4. What is left when a slag heap sinks into the ground?

5. How did a Northerner visiting Southern England see that part of the country?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the Means Test? Why did people dislike the Means Test?

2. What were the attributes of the Northern snobbishness Orwell writes about?

3. Why did Orwell think the working class people were rarely pure Socialists?

4. What one overarching generalization was Orwell taught about the lower classes of people in his town? What author did Orwell quote in support of this theory, and what did the author say?

5. Describe the slag heaps found in northern England. What did they look like? What were they eventually used for in Wigan?

6. What was the employment situation in Wigan and Sheffield, the two towns Orwell wrote about?

7. What does the statement by Napoleon "an army marches on its stomach" mean in context of life in industrialized England?

8. How did Orwell explain the attitude toward the family in a working class society? How did it differ in his opinion from the middle class man and his family?

9. Why did Orwell consider Socialism a way out of the social and economic conditions plaguing England in the 1930's? How did he present his argument?

10. What was the unemployment situation in England in the 1930's? How did Orwell's figures differ from official government figures?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Orwell explained that in England there is a natural rivalry between the northern part of the country and the southern. One expression Orwell used was the Northern Cult. The Northern Cult was a particular way of thinking about England and Orwell found it to be important when learning about class values. What was the Northern Cult? What were the roots of this expression? Why was this an important part of class distinction over the years? What were the qualities associated with the Northern Cult?

Essay Topic 2

How did Orwell go about learning more about the working class poor? Do you think his methods were ethical? Do you believe that by doing what he did he actually saw the real side of the lower classes in northern England? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

In the mines, there were men responsible for extracting the coal from the walls of the mines. Who were these men? Describe their jobs and working conditions. Why were they important to the coal mining process? How did Orwell learn about these men and their role in the extraction of coal?

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