View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the disadvantage of building the piazza on the north side of the house?
(a) The north side faces the neighbors.
(b) The north side faces the village.
(c) The north side has the narrowest view.
(d) The north side is coldest.

2. What sentence was chalked below the figurehead?
(a) "Never follow."
(b) "Follow your leader."
(c) "Follow orders."
(d) "Follow your faith."

3. Who wrote the book lying on the apple-tree table?
(a) Melville.
(b) Cotton Mather.
(c) Hawthorne.
(d) Faust.

4. What emblem does John Gentian wear on his left lapel?
(a) Gold eagle wings.
(b) An army medal.
(c) A Masonic symbol.
(d) A golden circle.

5. How did Captain Delano evaluate the relationship between Benito Cereno and Babo?
(a) A distressing lack of respect.
(b) A frightening scene of dependency.
(c) An enviable spectacle of fidelity.
(d) A shocking breach of convention.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator's wife think of his apprehension about the apple-tree table?

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

3. How does the lightning rod salesman feel about thunderstorms?

4. To what did Captain Delano attribute the ship's being so long becalmed?

5. How does Melville describe Captain Delano's personality?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "The Lightning Rod Man," why does the narrator pretend to mistake the salesman for the god Jupiter Tonans?

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

3. What is the figurehead on the San Dominick?

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

5. Why doesn't the narrator in "The Piazza" grant Marianna's wish and tell her that he is the resident of the house that she believes contains happiness?

6. What does Melville say is the difference between boarding a strange ship and entering a strange house?

7. Why is the narrator despondent at the beginning of "The Fiddler"?

8. What does the landscape painter, B. Hobbema Brown, believe about the Marquis de Grandvin?

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

10. What does the narrator of "The Fiddler" first admire about Hautboy?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 794 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample