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

2. Of Deborah’s thoughts on Hugh in “Life in the Iron Mills,” the narrator says, “She knew, that, down under all the vileness and coarseness of his life, there was a groping passion for whatever was” what?
(a) Available to love
(b) Full of comfort
(c) Freedom
(d) Beautiful and pure

3. The narrator says in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “About this man Mitchell hung the impalpable atmosphere belonging to the” what?
(a) Royal classes
(b) Thoroughbred gentleman
(c) Lowest class
(d) Undercover policeman

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

5. Of the sculpture discovered by the visitors at the iron mill in “Life in the Iron Mills,” the narrator says, “There was not one line of beauty or grace in it: a nude woman’s form, muscular, grown coarse with labor, the powerful limbs instinct with some one poignant” what?
(a) Longing
(b) Pregnancy
(c) Belief
(d) Plea

Short Answer Questions

1. Mitchell claims in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “Reform is born of need, not” what?

2. The character called Mitchell in “Life in the Iron Mills” is said to be an amateur what?

3. Hugh’s legs are describes as being ironed because he made how many attempts at escape from jail in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

4. Who was the publisher that accepted “Life in the Iron Mills” immediately and began a long friendship with Rebecca Harding Davis?

5. Rebecca Harding and L. Clarke Davis met where?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What are the impressions of the visitors when they see the sculpture in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

3. How is Hugh caught by the authorities in “Life in the Iron Mills”? What is Hugh charged with and sentenced?

4. What exchange takes place between Deborah and the Quaker woman at the jail in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

5. What elements of social change did Rebecca Harding Davis encounter during finishing school?

6. How does the setting of “Life in the Iron Mills” relate metaphorically to the story’s main characters?

7. When did Rebecca Harding Davis write “Life in the Iron Mills”? Who published it?

8. 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?

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

10. How does the narrator describe Hugh’s interaction with Deborah when she brings him dinner at the mill in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

(see the answer keys)

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