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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 another thing the London City Mission did?

2. How does Mayhew describe the Punch and Judy show?

3. For whom did the street clown work for before becoming a clown?

4. What group does Mayhew include among street folk that seems out of place?

5. How are Irish families described by Mayhew?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Mayhew say someone who is unable to work must do and how does he feel about those able to work who won't?

2. What kind of education did many of the street folk have, what types of families did many of them come from and how did many of them start out?

3. How many visits were done by the London City Mission and what were the results of those visits?

4. What was describe that was similar to modern crack houses, what were they like? What happened to the girl the author wrote about who was lured from home?

5. What did bus drivers own, what did they do and what other work had many of them done? How often did they work and what did their work prevent?

6. How many prostitutes were there in London?

7. What was an example of a male prostitute the author gave?

8. What was a casual ward?

9. What was the purpose of the mission?

10. What was the photographer's business like according to Mayhew?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mayhew states that the necessity of finding food separates animals from plants. Humans also must work for a living. Someone who is physically or mentally unable to work must rely on others, or on charity.

1. Discuss what you think separates animals from plants that are different from what Mayhew has said. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think all humans should have to work for a living? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. What types of obligations do you think society has towards the physically or mentally handicapped? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Costermongers usually lived in a drab, dreary, dirty rented room. Often it was shared with other family members. A mother, father and four or more children might live in a single room.

1. Discuss how living conditions such as in the statement above might affect a family. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Refute or defend the following statement: Human beings have a right to food, shelter and safety. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Explore some of the similarities and differences between the living conditions of costermongers in London during the era of this book and the slums of modern cities. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

The emaciated, depressed man with sunken eyes and wrinkles had worked as a clown for 16 years. He would prefer to be a groom or a police officer, anything except a clown. However, now that he had a wife and children to support, he clowned from 8 am to dark every day for 6 shillings per week. Ashamed, he hid his occupation from the neighbors.

1. Discuss the symptoms of depression you think is evident in this clown's story. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. How would being ashamed of a person's occupation affect the quality of his or her life? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss the ways in which this clown could be considered courageous for persisting in a job that he hated and was ashamed of for the benefit of his wife and children. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

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