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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. What is an example of a mutual aid society?

2. What did one Jewish trader claim to have purchased?

3. What does Mayhew say the Jewish traders seldom were?

4. What did many children do about food in the worse lodging houses?

5. What was the most common tasks for which costers used math?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the story Mayhew told about a crossing sweep from Dublin?

2. What were the largest group of London street people and what did they do for a living?

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

4. What did the patterers do who could be classified as entertainers?

5. How did dustmen and mudlarks help each other?

6. What was the usual marriage and family situations like with costermongers?

7. 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?

8. What were some of the positive aspects of being a costermonger?

9. Who were generally managers of lodging houses and what happened to a child who did not have the money for lodging?

10. How did the costermongers obtain their merchandise and what were the circumstances for borrowing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Due to competition, the photographer had to offer portraits for a half-penny, an impossibly low price. To bolster earnings, he either lured people into buying a more expensive photo, or sold them bogus products like a "Patent American Air Preserver" that was actually just scrap paper.

1. After reading this photographer's story would you consider him to be of low moral character? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Explain why this photographer's actions demonstrates the validity of the cliche: buyer beware. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Do you believe it is the responsibility of the seller of a goods to make certain the goods are worth the selling price or it is the responsibility of the buyer to decide that? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Unlike costermongers, crossing sweepers and mudlarks, who were almost destitute, street entertainers seemed motivated partly by ego, by the urge to perform before an audience.

1. Explain how the desire to have people see a person perform could motivate that person to give up a good home to obtain that desire. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Discuss what you would do if you had to choose between performing a song you were very good at before 1000 people for no money or performing that song before two people and being paid.

3. Do you think a person should choose a career she/he is interested in but receives poor compensation or choose a career that makes more money but does not interest the person? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Most costermongers were uneducated, and had attended the free public schools only for a few years, or not at all. Although costers were adept at adding and subtracting to figure their profits, they were ignorant of multiplication and very few could read or write.

1. Discuss how lack of education contributes to poverty. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Discuss some of the reasons that might keep a child of a costermonger family from attending free public schools. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Taking into consideration the factors of poverty, should the government of London in this era have made school mandatory? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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