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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. What did each of the permanent lodgers get for their ten shillings a week rent?

2. Who wrote "The Coal Scuttle?"

3. What kind of shop was attached to the Brooker's boarding house?

4. What was the average distance between the pit bottom to the coal face?

5. Where was Orwell's bed in his room at the Brooker's house?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were some of the common conditions in the houses Orwell studied for his book?

2. What were the caravan dwellings Orwell speaks about in his book? How many were there in Wigan? What were the living conditions in these caravan dwelling?

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

4. Describe the typical coal mine Orwell explored while studying the work conditions in the mines.

5. What were some of the reasons Orwell gave for a miner's pay being much lower than his publicized wage?

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

7. What did Orwell learn about the reality of the seven hour shift worked by the typical miner?

8. What were the three terms Orwell used to describe the construction of the substandard housing in Wigan and Sheffield? How are they each affected by the lavatories available to them?

9. Why did Orwell believe it was important to understand the working conditions of the miners? What did he see as the larger story?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Means Test was a method of deciding benefit amounts for the unemployed. Discuss the Means Test, its affect on the unemployed worker, and on the greater community.

Essay Topic 2

Orwell explained that as a child, he was taught that the lower class, the working class, smells. What did this mean to Orwell as a child? As he grew up, how did this concept of a visceral odor become both literal and figurative? How does the concept of the working class smell affect the struggle Socialism faces with class issues in England?

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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