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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. How is Jack Williams killed?
(a) While arguing with a friend.
(b) While walking to his horse.
(c) While playing poker.
(d) While drinking at the bar.

2. How long is the trip that the narrator sets out to take in the beginning of the book supposed to last?
(a) Three years.
(b) Eight months.
(c) Three months.
(d) Eight years.

3. What is pocket mining?
(a) Looking for small pockets of gold under water.
(b) Looking for small pockets of gold on the terrain's surface.
(c) Looking for small pockets of gold just below the terrain's surface.
(d) Looking for small pockets of gold in abandoned mines.

4. What does the narrator find on the islands of Mono Lake?
(a) Two abandoned mines on each island.
(b) One pine tree on each island.
(c) Two pine trees on each island.
(d) One abandoned mine on each island.

5. What is a nabob?
(a) People who spend their lives trying to become rich, but remain poor.
(b) People who gradually go from being poor to rich.
(c) People who go from being poor to rich quickly.
(d) People who have too much money to spend and try to become poor.

Short Answer Questions

1. How is the silver ore melted before it is shipped to California?

2. How does the narrator find himself when he reaches San Francisco in Chapter LXXVIII?

3. What species feed around Mono Lake?

4. Where is the preacher, Erickson, originally from?

5. Where does the narrator begin touring for his lectures?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Higbie, and why is he valuable for the narrator's search of Mr. Whiteman?

2. How does the narrator describe San Francisco?

3. How long is the narrator's trip, and what does he conclude at the end of the story?

4. What are the two different reasons that both the narrator and Higbie abandon their blind lead claim, and what is the result?

5. How does the narrator describe Hawaii and what initial setback does he encounter there?

6. What difficulties does the narrator have in finding stories to write?

7. What is the rivalry between Captain Ned Blakely and Bill Nookes?

8. What is the new career choice the narrator makes towards the end of the book, and how does it begin?

9. What is the process of mining silver and shipping it to California in 1865?

10. What lifestyle does the narrator have in the first few months of his stay in San Francisco, and how does it change dramatically?

(see the answer keys)

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