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. Why did Orwell believe it was not possible to have a trade union of middle class workers?
(a) During union meetings, middle class men would want to talk rather than make deicsion.
(b) During a strike, middle class men would move to another community.
(c) During picketing, middle class men would get lunch brought to them by their wives.
(d) At times of strike, middle class men would be nagged by their families to go to work.

2. With what, according to Orwell, is socialism inextricably connected?
(a) The idea of better housing and working conditions.
(b) The idea of overthrow of the rich.
(c) The idea of workers' solidarity.
(d) The idea of machine production.

3. How did a Northerner visiting Southern England see that part of the country?
(a) As snobbish, wealthy and unconcerned.
(b) As snobbish, cruel and wealthy.
(c) As snobbish, uneducated and fantastic.
(d) As snobbish, effeminate and lazy.

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

5. What did Orwell say was the only way to abolish class distinctions in England?
(a) You must be willing to incite a revolution.
(b) You must be willing to eat fish and chips.
(c) You must be willing to abolish part of yourself.
(d) You must be willing to move to northern England.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is left when a slag heap sinks into the ground?

2. Who wrote "Erewhon?"

3. What did Orwell find was the basis of the diet for families of the unemployed?

4. How long was Orwell a member of the Indian Police?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What were some of the benefits available to unemployed workers in Wigan and Sheffield? How long did benefits last? How long could someone remain unemployed before running out of benefits?

2. How did Orwell see the clash between the Socialist idea of the machine state and the working people Socialism wished to bring into the fold?

3. 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?

4. Orwell described the view from a street in Sheffield. Describe what he saw when he looked around the town.

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

6. What story did Orwell relate about the beer bottle? How did this support his dislike of the working class body? How did he say he was able to overcome this dislike?

7. 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?

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

9. What was "scrambling for the coal?"

10. What was the Means Test? Why did people dislike the Means Test?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,482 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample