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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 hopes to sail where from the island?

2. The people had tried to do away with the language altogether, but the illiterate and whom were in an uproar?

3. The last room of the academy is one for what?

4. How long is it between the time that Gulliver escapes and the time that he returns to England?

5. Who proposes that health and politics are intimately linked?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Gulliver's encounter with the pirates.

2. What are the people of Laputa like?

3. What do Gulliver's choices of people to call back from the dead say about his motivations?

4. What happens to Gulliver, once he reaches Luggnagg?

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

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

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

8. What lesson does Swift try to teach about life and death, in Part 3, Chapter 10?

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

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Gulliver and the king of giants have a long discussion about the government of England at the time. Swift makes it clear, through this discussion, that he has much distaste for the way things are run.

Part 1: Do you feel that modern governments have improved at all since Gulliver's times? Why or why not?

Part 2: If you were the ruler of a country, what sort of system of government would you want and why? Would you want a government like the one run by the giants? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Explain, using details from the story, the difference between how Gulliver is treated by the farmer when they first meet and how Gulliver is treated by the farmer towards the end of the time that Gulliver is in the farmer's possession. Also, have you ever been the victim of someone who treated you one way to begin with and completely differently later on? If so, explain. If not, have you ever treated someone else one way at first and differently later on? If so, why?

(see the answer keys)

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