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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 marks the end of Ernest Atkinson's political career?
(a) He offends the mayor of Gildsey.
(b) He sneezes in parliament during a speech by King George V.
(c) He runs as a candidate for the Liberal Party.
(d) He opposes the unionization of dock workers.

2. Which boy is most aggressive about asking the two girls to take their clothes off?
(a) Freddie Parr.
(b) Peter Baine.
(c) Dick Crick.
(d) Tom Crick.

3. What does Tom Crick tell his students is the question humans must always ask about history?
(a) When?
(b) Why?
(c) Who?
(d) How?

4. What does Tom notice for the first time when Mary struggles with Freddie Parr's prank?
(a) That Terry Coe is afraid of eels.
(b) That Freddie Parr is a drunkard.
(c) That Mary is ticklish.
(d) That Dick is interested in Mary and that Mary is interested in Dick.

5. What does Tom Crick mean by the term "Natural History"?
(a) The study of human nature through stories to see what human beings truly are like.
(b) The history of animals, plants, and other life forms.
(c) History as it would progress if humans didn't attempt to interfere in it constantly.
(d) The history of the world as seen through the lense of science.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the object that Dick Crick treats like it is a real person?

2. What does Tom dream that he considers telling the headmaster about?

3. Why does Tom Crick decide to study the history of the Fens?

4. What tells Tom that he and Mary must finish their argument quickly because the park is about to close?

5. Henry Crick, Tom's father, is obsessed with one question about Freddie's death that he repeats over and over again. What is it?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does the chapter title "The Saviour of the World" refer to, and what does it mean?

2. In chapter 28, Tom explains why he turned to history and stories as passionately as he did. Why is that?

3. In chapter 23, Tom Crick asserts that the 14th of July festivities the French celebrate as Bastille Day are more of a fairy tale than anything else. What makes him say so?

4. In chapter 42, a new-found confidante helps Mary to get something Mary wants. What is that?

5. In chapter 29, Tom comes up with a way to test whether Dick killed Freddie Parr. What does he do to provoke a reaction from Dick? What reaction does he get?

6. Chapter 39 is about Mary's reaction to her pregnancy and to Tom's joy about it. What does Tom find her doing and what is the reason she gives?

7. in chapter 15, Tom Crick gives a history of the River Ouse and the Fenlands in its river valley. List at least three details from the river's history.

8. IIn Chapter 43, what significant change occurs in Tom and Price's attitude toward history?

9. In chapter 38, Tom describes the death of his mother from the flu. What is most remarkable about it to him?

10. In chapter 8, Tom Crick speaks about how humans tell stories. What are some examples he uses about how history and fiction sometimes seem to overlap?

(see the answer keys)

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