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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. Over what does Maturin agonize when on board the La Flèche?
(a) What he will tell his wife who did not think he was returning to her.
(b) How to categorize some of the odd species he has collected.
(c) Why he made such a fool of himself on the cricket field.
(d) His numerous natural history specimens.

2. How does Maturin find the Captain of the La Flèche?
(a) Feckless.
(b) Entirely agreeable, well-read, and intelligent.
(c) A fop.
(d) Arrogant and condescending.

3. What port has the HMS Leopard reached in Chapter 1?
(a) Sydney.
(b) Tahiti.
(c) Pulo Batang.
(d) Cape Hope.

4. How might the voyage back to England be described?
(a) Rough seas.
(b) Fraught with danger.
(c) Monotonous.
(d) Stimulating.

5. What does the vessel turn out to be?
(a) The USS Constitution.
(b) A US merchant vessel.
(c) A Dutch freighter.
(d) A pirate vessel.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Maturin do after Java strikes her colors?

2. Where is Aubrey to recover?

3. What helps the dehydration a little?

4. What do the sailors believe when they encounter a vessel?

5. What does Evans present to Maturin for Aubrey?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do you think the HMS Leopard is being converted to a transport?

2. How would you respond to being in open sea in an eighteen-foot boat with twelve other people?

3. Why do you think it would be a serious faux pas to not attend the Captain's table to which one is invited in order to manage one's specimens as Maturin almost does?

4. Who is Mrs. Wogan and how does she figure in the previous novel, which is mentioned in the initial chapters of this novel?

5. What are some events that foreshadow the loss of the La Flèche at the end of Chapter 2?

6. What surprises Aubrey once he is quartered at Asclepia?

7. What do you think it means that the officers are paroled and why is this so?

8. Do you think it is helpful for the author to present some background information from other books in the series, particularly the one just preceding this one?

9. Why do you think Aubrey argues so strenuously to retain his lieutenants and midshipmen?

10. Why would the men welcome being on board the HMS Java though it is quite crammed with people?

(see the answer keys)

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