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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the devil have all over his skin?
(a) Soot.
(b) Scales.
(c) Blood.
(d) Mud.

2. Tom agrees to become a usurer. What job is he saying he will do?
(a) He will buy and sell land.
(b) He will become a landlord.
(c) He will loan money at high interest rates.
(d) He will invest money on behalf of other people.

3. To what does the narrator metaphorically compare the financial speculation of Governor Belcher's time?
(a) A bubble.
(b) An illness.
(c) A plague of locusts.
(d) A doomed ship voyage.

4. What does the devil say is one way he currently entertains himself?
(a) By helping the Puritans persecute other Christians.
(b) By tempting anabaptists into sin.
(c) By encouraging war between Natives and Europeans.
(d) By making deals for the souls of Puritans.

5. Where is the pirate treasure buried?
(a) Beneath a tall oak.
(b) On an island in the Charles Bay.
(c) Under a fallen hemlock.
(d) In an abandoned fort.

Short Answer Questions

1. By what name does Tom call the devil?

2. To what does the narrator compare the sound of Tom's carriage wheels?

3. What does the countryman say he saw happen to Tom Walker?

4. Part of the story is set in a morass. What kind of location is this?

5. What is Tom's reaction to the disappearance and likely death of his wife?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Tom's wife do as a result of his refusal to make a deal with the devil, and what is the outcome?

2. What kind of a person is Tom Walker's wife?

3. What natural event happens in the area in 1727, and what is its thematic significance?

4. What is the significance of the devil's comment about Absalom Crowninshield's tree being ready to burn?

5. Why is the death of Absolom Crowninshield announced as the death of a great man in Israel when he actually died in Massachusetts?

6. What does Tom do with his money and what does it show about his personality?

7. How does Tom ultimately slip up and get captured by the devil?

8. Describe the appearance of the devil in this story.

9. What does Tom find in the mud of the swamp, and why does the narrator describe it as a memento?

10. What implicit racism is there in the description of the fort that once stood in the swamp?

(see the answer keys)

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