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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is Midshipman Hollom?
(a) An aging midshipman unable to achieve promotion to Lieutenant.
(b) A sailor on board the Celebration.
(c) Mr. Fielding's brother-in-law.
(d) Mrs. Fielding's cousin.

2. Whom does Maturin observe trying to flirt with Mrs. Horner?
(a) No one.
(b) Martin.
(c) Coleman.
(d) Hollom.

3. How are whales stripped of their blubber?
(a) They wait until they get to port and the whales are sliced in long strips.
(b) By boiling the carcass whole.
(c) By cutting chunks out of the hide.
(d) In one continuous spiral strip.

4. With whom does Surprise rendezvous unexpectedly?
(a) A French privateer.
(b) The USS Constitution.
(c) The HMS Dagger.
(d) Several Indiamen.

5. What region does the Surprise pass through that is considered difficult?
(a) The Bermuda Triangle.
(b) The lee side of the West Indies islands.
(c) No area is any more difficult than any other area.
(d) The doldrums.

6. What does Maturin do with the blood from the crew?
(a) Uses it to create an antidote.
(b) Uses it to catch several large sharks.
(c) Throws it out.
(d) Uses it to trap mosquitoes.

7. Why do whaling ships have prominent crow's nests?
(a) To balance the ship when a whale carcass is attached.
(b) To facilitate spotting whales.
(c) To be able to bombard the whale from a goodly height.
(d) To signal other ships that a particular whale is a ship's find.

8. What happens to over half of the whales killed?
(a) They are brought successfully to port.
(b) They are lost and not rendered into oil.
(c) They are eaten by sharks.
(d) They have no oil and are sunk.

9. What is Higgins' skill that Maturin needs?
(a) Herbal doctor.
(b) Dentistry.
(c) Psychiatry.
(d) Nothing.

10. How does Maturin relax?
(a) Taking laudanum.
(b) Climbing the rigging.
(c) Writing poetry.
(d) Running around the poop deck.

11. Who recognizes Aubrey and Maturin on the ship the Surprise encounters?
(a) The French captain.
(b) Several of the enlisted crew.
(c) No one.
(d) Some of the officers.

12. What does Diana request of Maturin?
(a) More household expense money.
(b) Passage to see him.
(c) A new overseer.
(d) A refutation of his alleged affair with another woman.

13. When does Maturin bleed the entire crew?
(a) When one man comes down with typhus.
(b) When one of the wives comes down with malaria.
(c) When the ship enters the tropics.
(d) When one man seems to have the plague.

14. What is running low on the ship?
(a) The water.
(b) Flour.
(c) Whiskey.
(d) Fresh fruit.

15. What happens to several of Aubrey's officers?
(a) They are ill.
(b) They are promoted onto other ships.
(c) They desert.
(d) They retire.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Maturin's position on board the Surprise?

2. Why does Maturin find Allen's conversation interesting?

3. Who is Dundas?

4. What does Dundas suggest to Aubrey?

5. How were Maturin and Mrs. Fielding rumored to once be associated?

(see the answer keys)

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