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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 left when a slag heap sinks into the ground?
(a) Ugly brown grass and soggy ground.
(b) Dry land and weeds.
(c) Soggy ground and bamboo.
(d) A small hill of dirt.

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

3. In 1918, what was the general feeling throughout England?
(a) One of conservatism due to the war.
(b) One of revolutionary thought due to the war.
(c) One of understanding due to the war.
(d) One of uncertainty due to the war.

4. Why did Orwell reference "Punch" in his discussion of class?
(a) Punch was the weekely magazine read by al classes of people.
(b) Punch was a sarcastic magazine.
(c) Punch was strongly against the class system in England.
(d) Punch often portrayed the middle-class as a figure of fun and joking.

5. How did unemployment affect the life of the married man?
(a) Unemployment raised the crime rate.
(b) Unemployment encouraged men to do housework.
(c) Unemployment did not make much difference in the home.
(d) Unemployment drove men to drink.

Short Answer Questions

1. What percentage of a person's income, whether employed or on unemployment, was given over to rent in Wigan?

2. What did Orwell call "the best example of bourgeois-baiting literature?"

3. Why did Orwell say Socialism had not taken hold in England despite its common-sense doctrine?

4. What did Orwell think would remind him that our age was not been a bad one to live in?

5. Who did Orwell believe was doing the best work for the unemployed in the thirties?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Orwell explain the attitude toward the family in a working class society? How did it differ in his opinion from the middle class man and his family?

2. What were the reasons Orwell cited for Socialism being intrinsically tied to machine industrialization?

3. Describe the slag heaps found in northern England. What did they look like? What were they eventually used for in Wigan?

4. Why did Orwell consider Socialism a way out of the social and economic conditions plaguing England in the 1930's? How did he present his argument?

5. What was the employment situation in Wigan and Sheffield, the two towns Orwell wrote about?

6. What did Orwell identify as the two methodologies for abolishing the class system in England? Why did he believe neither of these two to be viable?

7. What did Orwell do in order to learn more about the working class conditions he had previously not understood? How did he go about trying to be a part of the working class and see the world through their eyes?

8. Why did Orwell think the working class people were rarely pure Socialists?

9. How did Orwell's time in the military police effect his thinking about government and oppression?

10. Why did Orwell think Socialism was not on the rise in England? What did he think Socialists were doing to discourage people from participating?

(see the answer keys)

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