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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How was the coal miner getter paid?

2. What point was Orwell making in his explanation of the coal miner's pay?

3. When a miner comes up from the pit, why does he appear to be pale?

4. Who was Mr. Reilly?

5. In what position must the fillers work?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. Who were the Brookers? How did Orwell describe them? What did they look like? Behave like?

6. What were the coal mines like for Orwell? How did he see the men who mined the coal?

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

8. When people moved into the Corporation housing, what were some of the restrictions by which they had to abide?

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

10. Why did Orwell make the comparison between the miner's wages and the amount of coal and money the coal mines produce? What did he want the reader to understand?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Orwell spent a good deal of his life promoting Socialism and struggling with the issue of class differences and prejudices. He contended that to abolish class distinction, a person must be willing to abolish part of himself. What did he mean by this?

Essay Topic 2

Orwell spent five years in Burma as a member of the Imperial Police. Discuss how this experience affected his life, his politics and his belief system.

Essay Topic 3

Orwell described in detail the house in which he stayed with the Brookers, and the houses he visited and reported on for his book. Discuss the housing conditions in Wigan, Sheffield and other towns in northern England in the 1930's. Why were things so deplorable? Who did Orwell believe was responsible for the living conditions of the working and unemployed poor?

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