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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. What is the name of the lawyer that the judge appoints to Hugh Wolfe in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) Mr. Clarke
(b) Mr. Smith
(c) Mr. Gibson
(d) Mr. May

2. Mitchell claims in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “Reform is born of need, not” what?
(a) Criticism
(b) Pity
(c) Empathy
(d) Poverty

3. By what name does the narrator call the “refuse from the ore after the pig-metal is run” in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) Quartz
(b) Tar
(c) Korl
(d) Tarp

4. The narrator tells the reader in the beginning of “Life in the Iron Mills,” I will tell you plainly that I have a great hope; and I bring it to you to be” what?
(a) Tested
(b) Remembered
(c) Digested
(d) Embraced

5. The woman who stays behind at the jail after Hugh’s suicide is described as a Quaker or what, “as they call themselves” in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) Friend
(b) Pointer
(c) Believer
(d) Follower

Short Answer Questions

1. One of the visiting men tells the owner’s son at the mill in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “If it were not that you must have heard it so often, I would tell you that your works looks like” what?

2. When Hugh decides to keep the money in “Life in the Iron Mills,” he realizes of his watch at the mill, “He need not go, need never go again, thank God! – shaking off the thought with” what?

3. 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?

4. “Life in the Iron Mills” is regarded by many academics as the beginning of what movement in American literature?

5. What Biblical figure, the son of Isaac, does the narrator denote having been deprived of his birthright in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Hugh look down on from his prison window at in “Life in the Iron Mills”? What does this scene make him realize?

2. What decision does Hugh reach when he goes to attempt to return the money in “Life in the Iron Mills”? Why?

3. What is the outcome for Hugh in the denouement of “Life in the Iron Mills”?

4. How would you describe the narrator of “Life in the Iron Mills”? Is the narrator involved in the action of the story?

5. What does Deb attempt to give Hugh after they return home from the mill in “Life in the Iron Mills”? How does Hugh respond?

6. Who are the visitors that come to the mill in “Life in the Iron Mills”? Where do they go when they arrive?

7. What is the basic story related in the plot of “Life in the Iron Mills”? How would you “sum up” the story in one or two sentences?

8. How is Hugh’s death described in “Life in the Iron Mills”? How does Hugh die?

9. How does the author of “A Biographical Interpretation” describe Rebecca Harding Davis’s early years of marriage?

10. How is Hugh’s demeanor in the jail described in “Life in the Iron Mills”? What are Deborah’s impressions when she sees Hugh?

(see the answer keys)

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