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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What famous line came from Greenwood's play "Love on the Dole?"
(a) "Oh God, send me some work!"
(b) "Oh, God, let me get out of here!"
(c) "Oh God, let me die!"
(d) "Oh God, why have y ou done this to me?"

2. In order to calculate the actual number of people living on unemployment in England, what would one need to do?
(a) Multiply the official figure by 2.5.
(b) Multiply the official figure by 4.5.
(c) Multiply the official figures by over three.
(d) Divide the figure by more than five.

3. What did Saintsbury say about unemployment insurance?
(a) It was simply "a manifestation of the ignorance of capitalism."
(b) It was simply "woefully inadequate to deal with the problem."
(c) It was simply "contributing to the support of lazy ne'er-do-wells."
(d) It was simply "contributing to the poverty of the entire nation."

4. What was "scrambling for the coal?"
(a) Poor men running up the slag piles, digging out coal and putting it in their poclets.
(b) Poor men hijacking train cars and shoveling through them for coins.
(c) Poor men shoveling through the slag from the mines and passing the coal to their wives.
(d) Poor men fighting each other for lumps of coal in the slag.

5. What four words did Orwell discuss in detail as the reason for class distinctions?
(a) The upper-middle class cheat.
(b) The lower class smell.
(c) The middle class lie.
(d) The upper class steal.

6. How did Orwell describe the attitude toward education in the working class?
(a) A child could not wait to get out of school and move south to Dover.
(b) A child could not wait to get out of school and go to work to earn money.
(c) A child could be educated without ever going to school.
(d) Education was important only to the middle class.

7. What was one way the middle class worked to abolish class distinctions?
(a) Walk to the coal mines together.
(b) Give a coal miner a new home.
(c) Stand side by side in protest rallies.
(d) Attend summer schools with the proletariats.

8. What did Orwell call "the best example of bourgeois-baiting literature?"
(a) Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."
(b) Shaw's "Major Barbara."
(c) Ionesco's "The Bald Soprano."
(d) Mirsky's "Intelligentsia of Great Britain."

9. Why did Orwell's parents eventually forbid him to play with certain children in the neighborhood?
(a) "Middle class parents cannot afford to let their children play until homework was done."
(b) "Middle class parents cannot allow their children to be seen with blue collar children."
(c) Middle class parents cannot allow their children to play in the street all hours of the day."
(d) "Middle class people cannot afford to let their children grow up with vulgar accents."

10. What did Orwell say was the primary preoccupation of a single unemployed man in winter?
(a) Keeping warm.
(b) Finding food.
(c) Begging for money.
(d) Finding work.

11. In Orwell's opinion, what was one way the working class man differed from the middle class man?
(a) His attitude toward mining.
(b) His attitude toward politics.
(c) His attitude toward the Pope.
(d) His attitude toward family.

12. What were the occupational centers of the thirties?
(a) Places men could go to learn carpentry, boot making and other skills.
(b) Places men could go to watch television in peace and quiet.
(c) Places men could go to receive testing and training.
(d) Places men could go to start new careers as professionals.

13. What did Orwell find hopeful about the unemployed men he met?
(a) They had not gone to pieces spiritually.
(b) They could talk about their experiences and learn from them.
(c) They continued to exerecise in case work should come available in the mines.
(d) They relied on each other for food and money.

14. What book did Orwell write telling of his experiences in London with the unemployed street people?
(a) Down and Out in London.
(b) Down and Out on the Seine.
(c) Down and Out in the Gutters of London.
(d) Down and Out in Paris and London.

15. What did the Socialists think of the occupational centers?
(a) They believed the centers were run by Marxists.
(b) They believed the centers were brainwashing men.
(c) They believed the centers were there to keep the unemployed quiet and hopeful.
(d) They believed the centers should do more training.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Orwell believe every unemployed man should be given if he wanted it?

2. What did Orwell believe was the deeper implications of Socialism?

3. Who did the work in the house of a married unemployed man?

4. Under the capitalist system, who did Orwell say must live on the edge of starvation so that England can live in comfort?

5. Who said "an army marches on its stomach?"

(see the answer keys)

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