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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Rebecca Harding Davis was the eldest of how many children in her family?
(a) 2
(b) 5
(c) 4
(d) 3

2. Of Hugh Wolfe, the narrator says in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “His soul within him was smothering to death; he wanted so much, thought so much, and knew” what?
(a) So little
(b) Only art
(c) Only himself
(d) Nothing

3. Rebecca Harding Davis met and became acquainted with whom while staying with Nathanial Hawthorne?
(a) Henry Thoreau
(b) Susan B. Anthony
(c) Walt Whitman
(d) Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. What word does the narrator use in the beginning of “Life in the Iron Mills” to refer to a person who takes up an art, activity, or subject merely for amusement?
(a) Debutante
(b) Maestro
(c) Dilettante
(d) Diva

5. How many years in jail is Deborah sentenced in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) 5
(b) 10
(c) 3
(d) 18

6. Mitchell says of the laborers at the iron mill in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “Let them have a clear idea of the rights of the soul, and I’ll venture next week they’ll” what?
(a) Bludgeon you for your kindness
(b) Strike for higher wages
(c) Quit for a life of poetry
(d) Strike out to the sea

7. On what date did Rebecca Harding Davis die?
(a) September 29, 1910
(b) October 3, 1896
(c) July 7, 1901
(d) September 16, 1889

8. What is the name of the overseer that comes with the visiting men to the mill in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) Mr. Kirk
(b) Mr. Wolfe
(c) Mr. Clarke
(d) Mr. Mitchell

9. How long has Deborah stood at the spools at her job in the beginning of “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) 12 hours
(b) 6 hours
(c) 10 hours
(d) 8 hours

10. What broken figure does the narrator describe as “pointing upward from the mantle shelf” in the beginning of “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) A goddess
(b) An angel
(c) A tiger
(d) A lion

11. What Latin phrase, translated as “Hungry and thirsty, his soul faints him” is used in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) Clamat au arian
(b) Semper fidelis
(c) De profundis clamavi
(d) Scribet et libret

12. What Biblical figure, the son of Isaac, does the narrator denote having been deprived of his birthright in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) Cain
(b) Peter
(c) Abel
(d) Esau

13. What word from “Life in the Iron Mills” means given or characterized by joking?
(a) Ephemeral
(b) Extrapolated
(c) Implicit
(d) Jocose

14. In what year did the author of “A Biographical Interpretation” republish Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories?
(a) 1972
(b) 1988
(c) 1969
(d) 1992

15. The character called Mitchell in “Life in the Iron Mills” is said to be an amateur what?
(a) Gymnast
(b) Opera singer
(c) Hypnotist
(d) Comedian

Short Answer Questions

1. Of Deborah, the narrator says in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “Perhaps the weak, flaccid wretch had some stimulant in her pale life to keep her up—some love or hope, it might be, or urgent need. When that stimulant was gone, she would take to” what?

2. The mill where Hugh works in “Life in the Iron Mills” is described as being by the river and how far below the city-limits?

3. What is the name of the publisher’s wife whom Rebecca Harding Davis became close friends with?

4. What kind of bird does the narrator describe chirping desolately beside her in a cage in the beginning of “Life in the Iron Mills”?

5. Doctor May reads Hugh’s sentence to his wife from the newspaper how long after the night when they discussed the sculpture in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

(see the answer keys)

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