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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 are the last two items William adds to his kit from the equipment emporium?

2. In what month do the events of the <i>Scoop</i> begin to unfold?

3. How much of the <i>Francmacon</i>'s deck is given up to the captain's quarters?

4. After whose style has William Boot modeled his writing?

5. With what animal does Priscilla mischievously replace the animal on which William Boot had written for his recent Lush Places article?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what reason does Mr. Salter insist upon William keeping a low profile until the passport mess is sorted out?

2. Describe William's interaction with his unusual fellow passenger in the restaurant car of the train to Marseilles.

3. Why does Uncle Theodore sporadically sing snatches of old songs?

4. How - and why - is Corker dressed upon his arrival in the dining room of the <i>Francmacon</i>?

5. Why do the newspapers routinely return from the sickrooms "hopelessly mutilated" at Boot Magna Hall?

6. With what common and well-practiced activity is William content to live out his life?

7. Describe the activity in Mrs. Stitch's bedroom when John Boot comes to visit her in her home.

8. How does Mr. Baldwin affect the counter-revolution which overthrows the Soviet Union of Ishmaelia?

9. By what misunderstanding is William Boot mistaken for the Boot that Lord Copper asked Mr. Salter to find?

10. How do William and Corker both feel about Dr. Benito at the meeting of the Foreign Press Association?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A significant theme in Evelyn Waugh's novel is the double-faced interaction of the journalists with one another. All desperate to score a big story, they frequently sabotage and undermine one another in order to get ahead. These very common actions are part of the satirical presentation of the journalistic profession as given in Scoop. In a well-structured and composed essay, analyze the significance of Waugh's satirization of the journalists throughout the story. What is important to the satire about how they treat one other? How does their conduct reflect upon the journalistic profession?

Essay Topic 2

If there is any one character who is a victim in the story, it is Mr. Salter. He does not understand anything that is going on around him, is ordered around by his superiors, and denigrated by his subordinates. Compose an analytical essay on the character, actions, and fate of Mr. Salter. What sort of person is he? How does he comport himself in various situations? Is his "future" as prescribed in the final lines of the book a fitting one or not? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Though changed from the time of Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem "The White Man's Burden," Waugh sarcastically implies that many in Europe still feel an interventionist need to help those of less-fortunate countries. Write an analytical essay which broadly outlines the idea of the white man's burden and how such plays a role in the European interest in the Ishmaelite civil war. How does this interest show itself? In what ways is Europe interested in Ishmaelia? Does this interest seem more active or passive?

(see the answer keys)

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