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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 is a "blind back?"
(a) A house with no lavatory.
(b) A house with no fence.
(c) A house with no back door.
(d) A house with a tall fence.

2. How did Orwell come to understand the discrepancies in pay for miners?
(a) By interviewing miners.
(b) By listening to talk around the lunch table.
(c) By studing pay checks and bank accounts.
(d) By working with the payroll departments.

3. What is "traveling?"
(a) The unpaid time it takes to get from the job site to the eating area.
(b) The unpaid time it takes to crawl through the tunnels to the job site.
(c) Going up and down in the elevator.
(d) Getting to and from the mine from the miner's home.

4. When the Corporation cleaned out the slums and moved its occupants, where did it build housing for them?
(a) On top of pre-existing housing.
(b) In the center of town.
(c) Far away from the tenants' employment.
(d) Below ground.

5. What did Orwell find to be the determining factor in the way housekeeping was done?
(a) The lack of a grandmother in the house.
(b) The number of adults in one room.
(c) The proximity of the landlord.
(d) The number of children.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did men chew tobacco in the mines?

2. How far under the ground was Orwell when he reached the bottom of the mine?

3. What other types of expenses were taken from the miner's pay?

4. What author accused miners of gluttony?

5. What creature did Orwell see a surprising abundance of in the coal mine?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were the two largest causes of death to a miner on the job? What were the causes of these hazards?

2. Describe the elevator that took Orwell and the miners down to the tunnels.

3. Who were the newspaper canvassers, and what were their jobs?

4. What was one major convenience added to the more modern mines in England? What myth often told about miners did this modern convenience dispel?

5. Why did Orwell believe it was important to understand the working conditions of the miners? What did he see as the larger story?

6. Why were the fillers an important part of the coal mining business? What were their jobs?

7. There were three shift in the mines Orwell discussed. What happened in each of the three shifts?

8. How did Orwell come to write "The Road to Wigan Pier?" When did he write the book? For whom? What were the three parts of the book when it was originally published?

9. How did Orwell describe the housing in the industrial towns of England? When were most of the houses built?

10. What did Orwell learn about the reality of the seven hour shift worked by the typical miner?

(see the answer keys)

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