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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. Into what kind of fund did residents of better lodging houses pay?

2. From what ailment did Mayhew say all skilled laborers suffered?

3. Why did some young costers commit petty crimes?

4. Which group in London dominated wholesale trading?

5. Where did the dust men take the debris?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the story Mayhew wrote about a Cheap Jack?

2. How did patterers earn their living and what is an example of a story that demonstrated a patterer's skill?

3. What area of trade did the Jewish traders dominant and what did Ragmen do?

4. What are the six categories the author separated the London street people into and how did these street people generally earn their living?

5. How much money did sifters make, what did they do and why did they do it?

6. What did bolder boys do with coal barges, how was this viewed and what could happen to the boys? How did the boys feel about jail?

7. Where did most costermongers and their families live

8. What were some of the circumstances in the better lodging houses for the street people?

9. How much education did most costermongers have and what was the general extent of their intellectual abilities?

10. How did dustmen and mudlarks help each other?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Recent immigrants look down on the newly arrived, especially if there is a difference in race, nationality or religion. This is illustrated in Mayhew's attitude towards the Jewish residents, and their mutual disdain for recent Irish immigrants.

1. What emotional motivations might be given for recent immigrants to look down on newly arrived immigrants? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. What financial motivations might be given for recent immigrants to look down on newly arrived immigrants? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss some ways in which the prejudice of one nationality or religion against another might be ended. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Mike joined a gang of crossing sweeper youths. They tumbled together and worked sweeping an intersection together. Each kept his own tips, but they prepared meals together and rented a room together in a low lodging house. When there was not enough money for a room, they slept under the arched stone doorway of a church.

1. What were the advantages of youths working together? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. What were the disadvantages of youths working together?Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss in what ways a youth gang as above would be considered a family unit. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

The city of London used 3.5 million tons of coal each year and generated millions of tons of ash and soot. Dustmen were hired to haul off the ashes and dust, as well as haul away garbage and keep the streets clean.

1. Do you think London at this time might have been more polluted than modern cities? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Discuss how you think the quality of the air in London in this era might have affected people's lives. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss, in depth, the ways in which a dustman's life and health would have been affected by the job. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,330 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample