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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 the primary content of the Whiteman Cement Mine?

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

3. What is pocket mining?

4. What salary does the narrator start off with while working at the newspaper?

5. How long does the narrator stay with Capt. John Nye to help him through his spasmodic rheumatism?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does the narrator describe San Francisco?

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

4. What is the Whiteman Cement Mine and why is it considered to be elusive?

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

6. What happens when the narrator encounters a band of highway bandits after a lecture?

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

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

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

10. How does Nevada change during the flush times, and what are nabobs?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The author's tone in Roughing It changes throughout the book to reflect the narrator's journey. Analyze how Twain changes slightly between a humorous narrative and an informative reporting style of writing. Use the entire book to provide examples of which chapters feature each style, why the style was chosen for them, and how both styles contribute to the effectiveness of the story in general.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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