View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. To where does Silas Lapham want to take Bromfield Corey for a fish dinner?
(a) Tafts.
(b) A French restaurant in Manhattan.
(c) His Vermont farm.
(d) His home in Nankeen Square.

2. Why does Persis Lapham call her husband the Colonel?
(a) Silas Lapham is rigid and disciplined like an army officer.
(b) Silas Lapham was a colonel in the Civil War.
(c) Silas Lapham was a colonel in the Revolutionary War.
(d) Silas Lapham reminds her of her father, an army colonel.

3. Why hasn't Bromfield Corey seen Bartley Hubbard's article in The Events about Silas Lapham?
(a) Bromfield is illiterate.
(b) Bromfield only reads the society page.
(c) Bromfield only reads the Daily Adviser.
(d) Bromfield has been out of the country.

4. Why do the Laphams come to believe their home in Boston is in an unfashionable neighborhood?
(a) A newspaper article states that it is.
(b) The fashionable Anna Corey implies that it is.
(c) Their daughters decree that it is.
(d) A fashion magazine tells them it is.

5. In Chapter Four, with whom does Silas Lapham sit in the frame of a bay window at the construction site of the family's new Beacon Street house?
(a) Mr. Sewell.
(b) His daughters.
(c) Bromfield Corey.
(d) His wife.

Short Answer Questions

1. What business idea does Tom Corey propose to Silas Lapham that meets with Lapham's approval?

2. Which member of the Corey family is ill when they first meet the Laphams?

3. In what city does the novel open?

4. What have the Corey ladies lost when they first meet the Laphams?

5. Which member of the Lapham family is left alone with Tom Corey when he visits the site of their new Beacon Street house in Chapter Four?

Short Essay Questions

1. What indication is there in Chapter Ten that Tom Corey might prefer Penelope Lapham over her sister Irene?

2. Why do the Coreys consider themselves "better" than the Laphams, and what virtues does Silas Lapham possess that the Coreys do not?

3. Which Lapham sister does Tom Corey talk about when he visits the Laphams and which one does he not talk about, and what do his conversational tendencies indicate?

4. How has Persis Lapham supported her husband and his business over the years and how does Lapham honor her for her support?

5. How does Tom Corey describe the Lapham family to his mother?

6. How does Penelope react to Tom Corey's visits in Chapter Eleven, and what does her behavior indicate?

7. What is Silas Lapham's relationship with Milton Rogers and what disagreement do Silas and Persis have over Lapham's dealings with Rogers?

8. Describe Lapham's financial situation in Chapter Nine.

9. What arguments does Anna Corey give her husband for opposing their son's marriage to Silas Lapham's daughter?

10. Why does Bartley Hubbard interview Silas Lapham, and what differing views of success do Hubbard and Lapham have?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,085 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample