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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 a "Patent American Air Preserver"?

2. What happened to the young girl lured from home?

3. Where was the convicted thief who was interviewed born?

4. What did the mother of the magician do to the family library?

5. What have many tried to do according to the narrator?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was pornography and why did it become illegal in London?

2. How did the fire eater Mayhew interviewed become one and what was his early life like?

3. What was a casual ward?

4. Who did Mayhew call street folk?

5. How prevalent was theft, where did it often occur and how did a thief make money on stolen goods?

6. What was the purpose of the mission?

7. Who did Halliday say were swindlers?

8. What was an ongoing problem for the company from conductors and how did the bus companies combat that problem?

9. Who was the magician Mayhew interviewed and how did he become a magician?

10. How many prostitutes were there in London?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mayhew made sweeping generalizations about the different types of street people, and often relied on stereotypes. For example, he claimed that all blind musicians were highly religious while all "mechanics" or skilled laborers were melancholy, suffering from chronic depression.

1. Refute or defend the following statement: Stereotypes about people are generally true. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. How do you think stereotyping or generalization in research can affect the results of research? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. The only statement that can be true about a research population is if that population consist of only one person. Discuss this statement in view of Mayhew's tendency to stereotype groups of individuals.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

Bolder boys sometimes climbed onto empty coal barges and swept up the leavings of the cargo. This was considered theft, and they were usually chased off by the owners. Sometimes one would be arrested and sent to jail for a week. Like coster children, they regarded a week in relatively warm, safe surroundings with regular meals as a vacation.

1. Do you think the sweepings of coal left behind should be considered theft? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Discuss what the fact that some children regarded the jail as a vacation says about the coster children's lives. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss ways in which you see coster children as being abused in general in this era in London. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,166 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample