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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. How far away from Honolulu is the big island of Hawaii?

2. Why does Mr. Higbie join the narrator's party?

3. What is the total amount of time that the narrator stays in Hawaii?

4. Although his work is never published in the paper, what does the narrator write specifically for The Occidental?

5. When must work be performed on a new claim to prevent it from being relocated?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the narrator's work never published in The Weekly Occidental?

2. How does the narrator describe Mono Lake?

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

4. What is the City of Refuge?

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

6. How long does the narrator stay in Hawaii, and in what way does the author's literary tone change in these chapters?

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

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

9. What is pocket mining and the result of the narrator's attempt at it?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the contrast between Carson City and Lake Tahoe. What are the narrator's experiences in both places? Why does he choose to spend time in Lake Tahoe, and what are some of the ways it provides what the city cannot? How does Twain's description of Lake Tahoe illustrate his writing talent? Which events in both Lake Tahoe and Carson City display the main theme of the narrator's trip, and why?

Essay Topic 2

Slade is a character that depicts the roughness of the West during the late 1800s.

1) Describe Slade's background in detail, including his reputation and how he gained it.

2) Explain how Slade dies and what it represents in the way violent criminals face death.

3) Describe the event that occurs between the narrator and Slade, how the narrator reacts, and what his reasons are.

Essay Topic 3

One of the major lessons in Roughing It is the contradiction in the notion of becoming rich with little effort. This theme is returned to a number of different times throughout the book.

1) Explain what the goal of the narrator is in Nevada and why he believes it is possible.

2) Describe 3 ways that the narrator attempts to achieve his goal and the results of them.

3) Analyze the concept of becoming rich with little work, including what the author's message about it is in the book, and how the narrator's opinion of it changes.

(see the answer keys)

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