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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 2.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is a cage?
(a) A steel box in which supplies and personal belongings are kept.
(b) A steel box in which coal is transported to the surface.
(c) A steel box that is lowered at a fast rate into the caverns of the mine.
(d) A steel box in which the foreman rides through the caverns.

2. How did Orwell describe Mrs. Brooker?
(a) A beautiful, tall seductress.
(b) An overweight, jolly woman.
(c) A jolly, industrious woman.
(d) An anxious faced, obese invalid.

3. What did Mr. Brooker do while grumbling that it was "women's work?"
(a) Peel potatoes and clean house.
(b) Clean the bathrooms and cook oatmeal for dinner.
(c) Watch the television in the middle of the day.
(d) Shop for groceries and mend curtains.

4. What did each of the permanent lodgers get for their ten shillings a week rent?
(a) A bed in the attic and meals that were mostly bread and butter.
(b) A bedroom, a shared bath, and two meals a day.
(c) An attic room, a toilet, and one meal a day.
(d) A couch in a living area, a shared bath, and one meal a day.

5. What is "buttons down the back?"
(a) The type of shirt worn to keep dust from getting into clothing.
(b) A death story told to novices just entering the mines.
(c) Permanent scabs on vertebrae from scraping the spine on beams.
(d) A joke miners play on each other.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is "traveling?"

2. Where was Orwell's bed in his room at the Brooker's house?

3. What were "cream crackers?"

4. Why did Orwell believe the return trip through the tunnels was worse than the initial one?

5. What did Old Jack say every night when he went to bed?

(see the answer key)

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