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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. 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 drove men to drink.
(d) Unemployment did not make much difference in the home.

2. What class did Orwell say he was born into?
(a) The middle-upper class.
(b) The lower-middle-upper-class.
(c) The lower-upper-middle-class.
(d) The middle-upper-middle class.

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

4. What things did Orwell believe a good writer needed that an unemployed man could not find?
(a) Peace of mind, and a new, modern typewriter.
(b) Peace of mind, and extra cash.
(c) Peace of mind, and a room of his own to work.
(d) Peace of mind, and quiet.

5. How long was Orwell a member of the Indian Police?
(a) Four months.
(b) Ten years.
(c) Five years.
(d) Seven years.

Short Answer Questions

1. What famous line came from Greenwood's play "Love on the Dole?"

2. Who was the typical Socialist of the late 1930's in England?

3. What did Orwell find hopeful about the unemployed men he met?

4. Where did Orwell go before he turned twenty?

5. What common feeling was shared by all of the different factions of the middle class in England?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What was the unemployment situation in England in the 1930's? How did Orwell's figures differ from official government figures?

5. What one overarching generalization was Orwell taught about the lower classes of people in his town? What author did Orwell quote in support of this theory, and what did the author say?

6. What were the attributes of the Northern snobbishness Orwell writes about?

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

8. What was a "shabby-genteel" family in Orwell's opinion? What were some of the characteristics of a shabby-genteel family?

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

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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