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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 was done with the unusable shale inside of the mines?

2. What does "back to back" mean?

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

4. What were some of the most common conditions Orwell notes of housing in the industrial areas?

5. How does a miner bathe after dinner?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the meals Orwell was offered while living at the Brookers. Who cooked the meals? What were the boarders given to eat for dinner?

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

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

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

5. Why did Orwell leave the Brookers? Where did he go? How did he respond to his train trip leaving town?

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

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

8. 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?

9. Why were the fillers an important part of the coal mining business? What were their jobs?

10. What difference did Orwell see in the lives of the working class and the bourgeois that had to do with the humiliation suffered by many miners?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the northern, industrialized parts of England, coal was a prime commodity. What role did Orwell see coal playing in the industrialized world? How did this compare with miners' wages? On what did he blame the inequities he witnessed? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Orwell believed that as economies become more depressed, class distinctions become more pronounced. Do you think this was true in pre-war England? What was the economy like in the 1930's? Based on what we have experienced here in the last four years, do you believe that class distinctions are greater as our economy has become depressed? Discuss.

(see the answer keys)

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