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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. Gulliver talks with other professors about things like taxing a person based on what?

2. Gulliver is sent someone to help him with what?

3. At the port city, Gulliver is directed to go where until he can find passage to the island?

4. Gulliver explains to the king that England has how many houses in its Parliament?

5. When an immortal marries, it is annulled when the younger partner reaches what age?

Short Essay Questions

1. Much of Part 3, Chapter 6, talks about Gulliver's encounter with a doctor who is full of ideas. One idea is that in order to cure the woes of the government, the people in the government must be seen to and whenever the people are healed, the politics and government will be healed. Gulliver thinks that that is a valid idea. Do you think that it was? Why or why not? Is such an idea still applicable in today's society?

2. What identifies the immortals in the culture, in Part 3, Chapter 10, and what sorts of things must these immortals endure?

3. What are the people of Laputa like?

4. Why is the king's cousin, who befriends Gulliver, considered an outcast and do you think that it is fair? Why or why not?

5. What point does Swift seem to be making in Part 2, Chapter 6 and how does he use the king to make it?

6. What condition does Gulliver find most of the people in, when he goes down to the lower island, and why is he told that they are that way? What implications does that have?

7. In Part 3, Chapter 5, how is Gulliver further introduced to the ideas and beliefs of the Laputians?

8. How does the king of the floating island rule the people on the island below?

9. How does Laputa stay in the air and do you think that such an island really could exist by using modern technology?

10. How does Gulliver finally leave the island in Part 2, Chapter 8?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Swift uses the Laputans to poke fun at modern science and say that experiments are time consuming and costly and, often, fail completely. Do you think that scientific studies are worth the money and time invested, over all? If so, list examples of modern scientific advances that you think have been beneficial and why. If not, list scientific flops that you think have wasted or are wasting money and why.

Essay Topic 2

Gulliver is a doctor by profession, but an explorer at heart. Do you feel that most people take on professions that they enjoy, or do they get stuck in careers that they hate for most of their lives? Why did Gulliver become a doctor when he really wanted to be an explorer? What are some reasons that people in modern times do things that they'd rather not do.

Essay Topic 3

Choose any one of the times that Gulliver finds himself lost at sea and describe it in detail. How is he separated from his ship? How does he find land, finally? What sort of place does he find when he gets there, what people does he meet and what happens to him?

(see the answer keys)

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