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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which play did Tolstoy criticize most harshly?
(a) "King Lear".
(b) "Dr. Faustus".
(c) "Romeo and Juliet".
(d) "The Misanthrope".

2. What is the point of Orwell's essay on the English language?
(a) To entertain the reader, but not to impart any useful information.
(b) To express his feelings about the topic, though no one is likely to take his advice.
(c) To make a mockery of other writers who use the techniques he complains about.
(d) To educate people on how they can help stop the decline of the language.

3. Why does the narrator hesitate to kill the elephant?
(a) It is a large and expensive piece of machinery.
(b) He is afraid of the repercussions from the angry crowd.
(c) He feels compassion for it.
(d) He doesn't want to lose face.

4. How does Orwell describe Gandhi's political solutions?
(a) "Progressive."
(b) "Backwards."
(c) "Godly."
(d) "Medievalist."

5. According to Burnham, what place do workers occupy in the new socialist structure?
(a) Burnham does not discuss the socialist position of workers, only managers.
(b) They are semi-slaves, who are at the bottom of the pyramid.
(c) They are somewhere in the middle of the pyramid.
(d) They are near the top of the pyramid.

6. How do the police and magistrates feel after the prisoner's death?
(a) Angry.
(b) Guilty.
(c) Apathetic.
(d) Elated.

7. What aspect of "Gulliver's Travels" does Orwell discuss in Chapter 5?
(a) The inconsistency of the plot.
(b) The changes in Gulliver's character.
(c) The literary devices used by the author.
(d) Swift's use of imagery and symbolism.

8. In "The Managerial Revolution", what does Burnham say about capitalism?
(a) That it will only survive if it changes to accommodate social classes.
(b) That it is dying, and will be replaced with a socialist pyramid.
(c) That it is dying, and will be replaced with communism.
(d) That it is alive and well.

9. How does Orwell feel about the English language?
(a) It is declining, and the trend is irreversible.
(b) It is neither improving nor declining.
(c) It is in decline, but can be saved.
(d) It is improving.

10. Tolstoy accuses the playwright he is criticizing of having a philosophy similar to whom?
(a) Stalin.
(b) Machiavelli.
(c) Napoleon.
(d) Caesar.

11. What do the doctors in the narrator's hospital do?
(a) Intervene in only the most critical situations.
(b) Travel from one target patient to the next, ignoring the other patients who are suffering.
(c) Make the terminally ill patients as comfortable as possible.
(d) Triage the patients, starting with the most critically injured.

12. How do the hospital staff sterilize their equipment between patients?
(a) They dip the tools in rubbing alcohol.
(b) They don't.
(c) They use an autoclave.
(d) They boil the tools.

13. According to Orwell, what is the primary purpose of language?
(a) Straightforward communication.
(b) Evoking feeling.
(c) Expanding knowledge.
(d) Beauty.

14. What sort of bath does the hospital staff give the narrator?
(a) They put him in a lukewarm bath.
(b) They hand him a bucket of cold water and a washcloth for him to bathe with.
(c) They swab his body with warm damp towels.
(d) They put him in five inches of warm water.

15. Orwell feels that Swift, through "Gulliver's Travels", is attacking what sort of government structure?
(a) Totalitarianism.
(b) Oligarchy.
(c) Aristocracy.
(d) Democracy.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Gandhi feel about Satyagraha?

2. How does Orwell feel about Gandhi's policy of non-violent protest?

3. According to Orwell, literature is in danger from censorship, and what else?

4. In what stage of Tolstoy's life did this major change occur?

5. In Chapter 7, Orwell wonders if Gandhi was motivated by what vice?

(see the answer keys)

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