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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Who did most of the cooking and laundry at the Brooker house?
(a) A neighbor hired by Mrs. Brooker.
(b) Mrs. Brooker's daughter-in-law and future daughter-in-law.
(c) Mrs. Brooker's son and his wife and kids.
(d) Mr. Brooker's sister.

3. In a year, how many minors are killed at work?
(a) One in nine hundred.
(b) One in twenty.
(c) One in ten thousand.
(d) One in one hundred.

4. With what phrase did all of Mrs. Brooker's complaints end?
(a) "I hate it all, all I say."
(b) "I just as well die tonight!"
(c) "It do seem unfair, don't it?"
(d) "It does seem 'ard, don't it now?"

5. Where was Orwell's bed in his room at the Brooker's house?
(a) In the center of the room.
(b) Against a dresser.
(c) On the east wall.
(d) In the right hand corner nearest the door.

6. What physical attributes did the fillers share?
(a) They were short, slightly overweight and broad shouldered.
(b) They were tall, broad shouldered and thick around the waist.
(c) They were small, broad shouldered and thin.
(d) They were small, overweight thick thighed men.

7. What does "one up, one down" mean?
(a) One room in front of another.
(b) One room with a higher ceiling than the other.
(c) One ground floor, one basement.
(d) One room on each storey.

8. What did Orwell learn had happened to Wigan Pier?
(a) It was converted into a caravan park.
(b) It was turned into a diner.
(c) It had been demolished.
(d) It was a myth and never existed.

9. How did the Brookers view the two old age pensioners that lived in their house?
(a) They thought of them as dreadful parasites living on their charity.
(b) They did not think of them at all as long as they paid their rent.
(c) They thought of them as a danger because they smoked in bed.
(d) They thought of them as two old, quiet men bothering no one.

10. What other types of expenses were taken from the miner's pay?
(a) Uniform rental, tools, union fees.
(b) Hospital fees, tools, uniform rental.
(c) Insurance, lamp rental, union fees.
(d) Insurance, uniform rental, hospital fees.

11. What is a "dataller?"
(a) A miner who plants explosives.
(b) The superviser in the mine shaft.
(c) A miner who attends to the roof of the mine.
(d) A miner who digs the coal.

12. What did the fillers wear?
(a) Shorts, light tee shirts and knee pads.
(b) Shorts, light tee shirts and clogs.
(c) Long cotton pants and clogs.
(d) Thin drawers, clogs and knee pads.

13. Who was Emmie?
(a) The neighbor who complained bitterly about the Brookers.
(b) The maid hired to come in weekly.
(c) The fiance of a son living in London.
(d) Orwell's sister.

14. What is one superstition miner sometimes hold to?
(a) It is bad luck to carry a photograph of one's children into the mines.
(b) It is bad luck to kiss a woman goodbye before going into the mines.
(c) It is bad luck to see a woman before going to work in the morning shift.
(d) It is bad luck to wear red into the mines.

15. What were "caravan dwellings?"
(a) Traveling circus employees' tent cities.
(b) Trailers for the government workers in the city.
(c) Trailers that were brought in after the war for housing.
(d) Housing set up for criminals.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which towns did Orwell note for their approach to tearing down slum housing and rebuilding?

2. What was the most understandable cause of accidents in a mine?

3. What was offered a very few of the miners in the better built mines?

4. What were the first sounds Orwell heard in the morning when he woke at the Brookers?

5. Who wrote "The Coal Scuttle?"

(see the answer keys)

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