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. What was one problem faced by the tenant moving from slum housing into new housing?
(a) The outdoor plumbing.
(b) The higher expense.
(c) The noise level.
(d) The lack of medical care.

2. When a miner comes up from the pit, why does he appear to be pale?
(a) Because he is exhausted.
(b) Because he has not been in the sun.
(c) Because he is thirsty.
(d) Because of the foul air he has been breathing.

3. Who wrote "The Coal Scuttle?"
(a) Mr. Paul McCartney, Mayor of Barnsley, Yorkshire.
(b) Mr. Joseph Jones, Mayor of Barnsley, Yorkshire.
(c) Mr. Albert Hall, Mayor of Chelsey, Yorkshire.
(d) Mr. John Abbott, Mayor of Chelsey, Yorkshire.

4. Who were the fillers?
(a) The men moving coal on the elevators.
(b) The men shoveling coal onto the conveyer belt.
(c) The men digging coal from the ground.
(d) The foremen.

5. How does a miner bathe after dinner?
(a) In a tub outside in the yard.
(b) In a hot bath tub.
(c) In an outdoor shower.
(d) With a basin of water and a washcloth.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the average size of one of the dwellings?

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

3. When the Corporation cleaned out the slums and moved its occupants, where did it build housing for them?

4. What were "caravan dwellings?"

5. What does "back to back" mean?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Orwell believe that our civilization is founded on coal? How did he relate this belief to the coal miner?

2. Who were some of the boarders at the Brooker's rooming house? How were thought of by the Brookers?

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

4. What were the newer government (Corporation) houses like? What were the positive and negative aspects of the housing?

5. What did the miners look like when they emerged from the coal mines? What were some of the first things they did upon coming above ground?

6. 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?

7. What is nystagmus? How is it contracted? How is it cured? What happened to a miner in Orwell's time who contracted nystagmus?

8. Orwell stated that the Brookers were typical of most people in the modern world. What characteristics did he point out as typical?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,288 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample