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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does the elephant die?
(a) It dies quickly and painlessly.
(b) It doesn't die, it escapes.
(c) It is shot twice but dies slowly.
(d) It kills two people before finally collapsing.

2. According to Orwell, what political structure fosters great literature?
(a) Communism.
(b) Democracy.
(c) Oligarchy.
(d) Totalitarianism.

3. Why does the narrator eventually shoot the elephant?
(a) Because it is his job.
(b) Because he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt.
(c) The angry crowd doesn't really give him a choice.
(d) Because he wants to collect the reward.

4. What helped to change Orwell's opinions of Gandhi?
(a) Gandhi's autobiography.
(b) The opinion of someone who knew Gandhi personally.
(c) News stories about Gandhi.
(d) Meeting Gandhi.

5. What does Burnham say about the Nazis?
(a) They were monsters.
(b) They were good soldiers, with corrupt leadership.
(c) They were well intended, but misguided.
(d) They may have been monsters in a different era, but in this one, they were fine.

6. What does Orwell say is the sole purpose of a metaphor?
(a) To supply one thing with the attributes of another.
(b) To explain an association between two things
(c) To further the point of the writer.
(d) To call up a visual image.

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

8. What major change occurred in Tolstoy's life?
(a) He moved from England to Spain.
(b) His wife and children all died from influenza.
(c) He sustained a serious injury, and was paralyzed.
(d) He converted to Christianity.

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

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

11. What similarity does Orwell find between the Catholic and Communist ideologies?
(a) Both appoint a leader without the input of the followers.
(b) Both provide harsh punishments for dissenters.
(c) Both are based on an idea that sounds much better until it is put into practice.
(d) Both refuse to acknowledge the honesty and intellectual capability of their opponents.

12. Of what religion is the prisoner in Chapter 2?
(a) Buddhist.
(b) Muslim.
(c) Hindu.
(d) Christian.

13. How much does Orwell think the managerial revolution, which Burnham writes about, has influenced the United States?
(a) Not at all.
(b) A lot.
(c) Very little.
(d) Some.

14. According to Burnham, who governs the manners and morals of a given era?
(a) Those who are in power.
(b) The aristocracy.
(c) Religious figures.
(d) The general public.

15. Why is Orwell skeptical of Gandhi's celibacy and vegetarianism?
(a) Because Orwell doesn't understand the point of either practice.
(b) Because Orwell believes that Gandhi is lying about his abstinence from sex and meat.
(c) Because Orwell doesn't think that either practice is necessary for political leverage.
(d) Because his reasoning is based on a view that this world is an illusion.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Burnham, what is the most important factor for class mobility, in the society he envisions?

2. Where do the magistrates and police convene after the prisoner's death?

3. How do the Burmese treat the narrator?

4. What did the name of Gandhi's political policy, "Satyagraha," mean?

5. What is the crowd's reaction to the prisoner's chant?

(see the answer keys)

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