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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What do the Peruvian listeners force the storyteller to do to prove his story is true?
(a) Cross his heart.
(b) Produce another witness.
(c) Swear on the Bible.
(d) Show some evidence.

2. How does the narrator of "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo?" treat his creditor after hearing the crow?
(a) He apologizes.
(b) He offers to double his payment.
(c) He throws him out.
(d) He pays him promptly.

3. What age is the narrator of Bartleby?
(a) In his fifties.
(b) In his forties.
(c) In his sixties.
(d) In his thirties.

4. What does Steelkilt threaten to do if he is flogged by the captain?
(a) Tell the admiralty board of review.
(b) Jump overboard.
(c) Seek an unnamed revenge.
(d) Murder the captain.

5. What did a strange boy give the narrator in the theater?
(a) A cup of ale.
(b) A cup of coffee.
(c) A cake of barley.
(d) An unexpected smile.

6. How does the narrator accommodate the weakness of his oldest scrivener?
(a) By giving him unimportant papers in the morning.
(b) By hiring an assistant for him.
(c) By giving him unimportant papers in the afternoon.
(d) By allowing him to work only half a day.

7. What surprises the narrator of "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo?" about the owner of the rooster?
(a) He is old.
(b) He has many such roosters.
(c) He is poor.
(d) He has a large family.

8. How does the narrator of "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo?" view the world?
(a) Full of dangers, snares, and delusions.
(b) Full of puzzles, traps, and confusion.
(c) Full of sunshine, flowers, and rainbows.
(d) Full of casualties, despotism, and knocks on the head.

9. With what alliteration does Melville describe the islands?
(a) An archipelago of aridities.
(b) Extensive elegant exotica.
(c) Dark, doleful doomsday.
(d) Fruitful festival of fecundity.

10. How does the narrator get into the London theater presentation?
(a) A stranger gives him a ticket.
(b) He pawns his overcoat to buy a ticket.
(c) He finds a ticket on the sidewalk.
(d) He sneaks in a side door.

11. Why does the captain fear to shoot Steelkilt for his insubordination?
(a) It would lead to a admiralty investigation.
(b) It would spark a mutiny.
(c) It would justify Radney's dishonorable actions.
(d) It would be unfair.

12. How does the narrator of "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo?" view locomotives and steamships?
(a) As instruments of destruction.
(b) As symbols of human ingenuity.
(c) As harbingers of a bright future.
(d) As uniters of families.

13. What did the American ship, the Essex, see in the Encantadas?
(a) An English ship.
(b) An enchanted ship.
(c) A pirate ship.
(d) A ghost ship.

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

15. Where does the narrator in The Town-Ho's story tell his tale?
(a) On the deck of the Town-Ho.
(b) Lima, Peru.
(c) On the deck of the Pequod.
(d) The Cape of Good Hope.

Short Answer Questions

1. What good qualities does Bartleby have as an employee?

2. What animal does Melville claim is not at home at sea, on land, or in the air?

3. Of what does the onstage action in the London theater remind the narrator?

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

5. What is the narrator's condition when he goes to the theater in London?

(see the answer keys)

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