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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Ahab thinking about as he looks out to sea?
(a) home, family, and growing older.
(b) the fall in Nantucket.
(c) vacationing in Italy.
(d) whether whales have families.

2. What happens on this first encounter with Moby Dick?
(a) Moby Dick is harpooned but gets away.
(b) Ahab's peg leg is broken off and Fedallah is missing.
(c) Ahab finds his hat floating on the ocean.
(d) one of the boats is destroyed.

3. What is the next whaling ship the Pequod meets during the search for Moby Dick?
(a) The Bounty.
(b) The Delight.
(c) The Nantucket.
(d) The Barbara Ellen.

4. Given the irony of the coffin turned life buoy, what is the feeling of foreshadowing?
(a) that death is just a part of life.
(b) that the White Whale will never be found.
(c) that there will be death and only one survivor.
(d) that Ahab will die before Moby Dick is spotted.

5. How does Ishmael classify the oiling of the bottom of a boat?
(a) a ceremony performed for good luck.
(b) a ceremony performed to attract whales.
(c) a ceremony performed for Neptune.
(d) a ceremony of initiation of new sailors.

6. What happens to the mast of the Pequod during a typhoon?
(a) it glows in the dark.
(b) it loses all its sails.
(c) it catches on fire.
(d) it breaks in two.

7. When Tashtego accidentally falls into the oil-filled head of the whale, who rescues him?
(a) Starbuck.
(b) Queequeg.
(c) Flask.
(d) Ishmael.

8. From what does the Pequod escape at sea?
(a) a giant squid.
(b) Malay pirates.
(c) Japanese gun boats.
(d) an ocean whirlpool.

9. While Starbuck is talking, what is Ahab thinking?
(a) why he must kill Moby Dick.
(b) where they will find Moby Dick.
(c) what his family is doing back home.
(d) why Starbuck talks so much.

10. What does Starbuck contemplate when he finds Ahab asleep?
(a) locking up the captain.
(b) murdering the captain.
(c) scaring the captain.
(d) waking the captain.

11. Why is the captain of The Rachel appealing for help from the Pequod?
(a) his ship is taking on water from Moby Dick's damage.
(b) he wants two ships to surround Moby Dick.
(c) one of his crewmen has fallen overboard near Moby Dick.
(d) his 12-year-old son is on the boat hauled away by Moby Dick.

12. What does Fedallah say about his own death?
(a) he will die of old age.
(b) he will die on land.
(c) he will die before Ahab.
(d) he will die of fright.

13. What does Ahab order the ship's blacksmith to do?
(a) reinforce the sides of the Pequod.
(b) make more lances to use on Moby Dick.
(c) make a cast iron coffin for him if Moby Dick is not found.
(d) forge an iron harpoon only for Moby Dick.

14. What does Ishmael say the head of the sperm whale contains?
(a) hard bone used as a battering ram.
(b) the largest and the most pure quantity of sperm whale oil.
(c) soft tissue that contains no oil.
(d) a gigantic brain.

15. What is the second objection the Sag Harbor man has for the veracity of the story of Jonah?
(a) the gastric juices of the whale would have killed Jonah.
(b) there is no oxygen inside a whale's stomach.
(c) the throat of the whale could not swallow a man.
(d) the whale would bite and not swallow whole.

Short Answer Questions

1. Ironically, what is hanging from the taffrail of the Pequod?

2. What foreshadows what is likely to happen to Ahab and Fedallah?

3. How does Ahab react to the intrusion by Starbuck?

4. Where does Ishmael say the brain of the sperm whale lies?

5. What is the effect of Ahab's distraction on Starbuck?

(see the answer keys)

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