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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the carpenter ordered to do with Queequeg's coffin?
(a) turn it into a life buoy.
(b) use it to patch up Ahab's boat.
(c) turn it into an oil cask.
(d) dismantle it for fire wood.

2. What does Fedallah say is the advantage of having the Right Whale on the other side of the ship?
(a) to draw the sharks away from the sperm whale.
(b) to appease the sea gods.
(c) to keep the ship from capsizing.
(d) to attract other whales to the area.

3. What has the need for revenge done to Ahab's heart?
(a) it has softened because of tragedy.
(b) it has weakened after three years at sea.
(c) it has turned cold and unfeeling.
(d) it has doubled over the missing boy.

4. What does the dream predict can kill Ahab?
(a) an iron harpoon.
(b) hemp.
(c) oil.
(d) fire.

5. What makes Ahab return quickly to the Pequod from the Samuel Enderby?
(a) he wants to beat the other captain to Moby Dick.
(b) he begins to feel ill.
(c) he learns the direction Moby Dick is traveling.
(d) he has a fight with the other captain.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ishmael recount about the Samuel Enderby that occurs many years later?

2. What is the carpenter doing when Ahab ascends to deck the next morning?

3. What does the captain of a German whaling ship want from the Pequod?

4. While Starbuck is talking, what is Ahab thinking?

5. How is Ahab's mental condition best described by this point?

Short Essay Questions

1. What further insult does Ahab act out after meeting the Delight?

2. What is Ishmael trying to ascertain as he ponders fossil remains of whales he has read about?

3. Describe Ishmael's arguments against the man who doubts the Bible.

4. Why does Ahab change his attitude toward the leaking casks of whale oil?

5. Why does Ahab transfer onto the Samuel Enderby to hear its captain's story?

6. What is the secret that Ishmael lets slip about why Ahab stayed in his cabin so long at the beginning of the trip?

7. How does Ishmael show the further mental deterioration of Ahab?

8. What is foreshadowed by a dream on Ahab's whaling boat?

9. What ironic thought does Ahab have while looking at Queequeg's coffin?

10. What happens when Tashtego accidentally falls into the oil-filled head of the whale?

(see the answer keys)

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