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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 technique is employed when the narrator says, "If I was writing a story I could make up all sorts of things" (14)?
(a) Irony.
(b) Paradox.
(c) Foreshadowing.
(d) Understatement.

2. What condition does Battersby put on his agreement to take Harry as a roommate?
(a) He wants Harry to agree to do all the cooking and cleaning.
(b) He does not want Harry to be told what the rent is.
(c) He does not want Harry to bring his banjo.
(d) He wants Harry to agree not to speak to his sister.

3. When they are smoking in the park, where does Poor offer to take Harry later that evening?
(a) Piccadilly Circus.
(b) To meet Fitz's wife.
(c) A Jamaican-owned club.
(d) Hyde Park.

4. What obstacle does Gallows encounter at the first estate agent office he goes into?
(a) Owners who do not want to sell to Blacks.
(b) The need to prove his income.
(c) An estate agent who refuses to talk to him.
(d) Prejudice against his criminal background.

5. Why is Battersby thinking about money while he makes his morning tea?
(a) He is behind on his rent payments.
(b) He has just lost his job.
(c) He is almost out of tea and other basic supplies.
(d) His sister has asked him for a loan.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of Battersby's sister?

2. Where does Gallows tell his friends that he might get a windfall of money from?

3. In the market, when Alfy calls out to Poor that he is "dying for a cigarette," what reason does he give for not smoking one (39)?

4. In the page 1 sentence "Pound notes and fivers start to fall all about in the room, until is as if he is swimming in it, and the water-mark rising higher and higher," what technique is being used?

5. What does Harry plan to do to make "some big money" (15)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is ironic about the difference between the food Battersby imagines on page 2 and the food he genuinely likes?

2. To whom does Battersby threaten to complain about his housing situation, and why does he decide against making a complaint?

3. When Jean and Harry go out into the hallway to fix the fuse, what do they discuss?

4. How did Gallows come to meet Battersby and his friends?

5. How does Harry end up holding onto Poor's pack of cigarettes for him?

6. What observations does the narrator make about hidden ambition before telling the story of how Gallows came to England?

7. What number does Bat imagine giving his apartment, and why is this important to him?

8. What does the narrator say to his audience about his decision not to offer more details about Poor's appearance and origins?

9. What is ironic about the conversation that Alfy, Nobby, and Syl have about Harry's banjo, and what does this conversation reveal about the men?

10. What is ironic about the way Syl's West Indian origins were exposed to his landlord?

(see the answer keys)

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