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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. Why does the narrator of "I and My Chimney" decide never to leave home?
(a) He is "sour and unsocial."
(b) He is busy rebuilding the house.
(c) His wife won't permit it.
(d) He is standing guard over the chimney.

2. Where do "'Gees" come from?
(a) Africa.
(b) Portugal.
(c) Fogo.
(d) Brazil.

3. What sort of feet did the apple-tree table have?
(a) Marble balls.
(b) Hooves like Satan.
(c) Brass fittings.
(d) Carved mahogany.

4. What does the narrator in "The Paradise of Bachelors" say has become of the Knights Templar?
(a) They've become lawyers.
(b) They've become doctors.
(c) They've become warriors.
(d) They've become schoolteachers.

5. How does the lightning rod salesman feel about thunderstorms?
(a) He is confident.
(b) He is terrified.
(c) He is assured of his own safety.
(d) He is relaxed and unafraid.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the maids work to produce?

2. What does the narrator in "The Fiddler" do with his manuscripts?

3. What was the disadvantage of building the piazza on the north side of the house?

4. Why does the lightning rod salesman claim that his rods are superior?

5. What does the narrator in "The Fiddler" aspire to become?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the Spanish naval board of inquiry at first reject parts of Benito Cereno's deposition?

2. What seems odd about Benito Cereno's ship when Captain Delano first sees it?

3. What is the figurehead on the San Dominick?

4. What haunts the narrator at the conclusion of "The Piazza"?

5. What does the chimney in "I and My Chimney" provide for the narrator on the second landing?

6. What does the bug in the apple-tree table teach the narrator's daughter, Julia?

7. Why do the peacocks on the wallpaper in the parlor seem to the narrator to represent Jimmy Rose?

8. How have the Knights Templar changed, according to Melville's observations, in "The Paradise of Bachelors"?

9. What does the narrator of "The Piazza" think when he first sees a single bright spot in the northwestern hills?

10. What is unusual about the bug that emerges from the apple-tree table in the story of that name?

(see the answer keys)

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