View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Ernest Atkinson convert his manor Kessling Hall into?
(a) A museum in honor of Sarah Atkinson.
(b) A hospital for the wounded of World War I.
(c) An asylum for the mentally ill.
(d) A school for orphans.

2. What does Tom Crick tell his students is the difference between animals and humans?
(a) Animals don't kill each other out of jealousy.
(b) Humans can plan for the future.
(c) Humans tell each other stories.
(d) Humans have the ability to forgive each other.

3. What sort of proof does Mary offer that Dick cannot be the father of her child?
(a) Ideological.
(b) Physiological.
(c) Theological.
(d) Psychological.

4. What is the historical event that Tom Crick keeps returning to over and over again as he explains that history seems to move in a circle?
(a) The Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
(b) The Norman Invasion of 1066.
(c) The Sarajevo Assassination of 1914.
(d) The French Revolution of 1789.

5. What does the phrase "in loco parentis" mean?
(a) In place of the parents.
(b) According to the logic of the parents.
(c) Placed in parentheses.
(d) Because of parental insanity.

6. Tom Crick mentions a similarity his father found between his home and the battlefields of World War I. What is that similarity?
(a) The men were silent and preferred to keep to themselves.
(b) The army served the same ale the Atkinsons brewed in Gildsey.
(c) The pretty girls in the town were disdainful of him.
(d) The mud felt the same and eels swam in the pools.

7. Which of the following is NOT a theory that biologists have put forward about how eels reproduce?
(a) Eels form out of small parasites that begin their lives in the belly of larger fish.
(b) Eels create offspring by rubbing against rocks; the young form the shreds of skin that come off.
(c) Eels are sexless and a born spontaneously out of the mud.
(d) Eels fertilize their eggs internally and bring forth live young.

8. The effects of Ernest's special ale caused all of the following EXCEPT:
(a) The premature setting off of the evening's fireworks.
(b) The near-collision of two pleasure boats whose steersmen had drunk too much.
(c) Wild improvisations by the marching band.
(d) The mass desertion of the army troops stationed in the town to the taverns.

9. What does Ernest Atkinson, Tom's grandfather, do that marks the beginning of a long list of scandalous behavior?
(a) He bathes in a public fountain with some of his Cambridge classmates.
(b) He closes the Atkinson brewery and begins selling soda instead.
(c) He proclaims that he believes Sarah Atkinson's ghost haunts his bedroom.
(d) He get engaged to a poor journalist's daughter without his parents' permission.

10. Who does Tom Crick think his wife Mary is having a love affair with in her old age?
(a) Nature.
(b) Their neighbor's son George.
(c) God.
(d) His brother Dick.

11. What did the inquest decide was the cause of Freddie Parr's death?
(a) Freddie had committed suicide.
(b) Freddie was drunk, fell in the water, and could not swim.
(c) Freddie had been hit on the head with a bottle.
(d) Freddie had been robbed and drowned by thugs.

12. What is the term Tom Crick keeps using to refer to Mary's attitude towards the world when she was an adolescent?
(a) Aloof.
(b) Eager.
(c) Passive.
(d) Curious.

13. What does Ernest Atkinson do with the three remaining steam ships he owns?
(a) He sells them to the city of Gildsey for the use of the fire brigade.
(b) He names them after his daughter, Helen I, Helen II, and Helen III.
(c) He donates them to the army to aid in the war effort.
(d) He converts them into pleasure cruise ships.

14. What is Ernest Atkinson's reaction to the fire?
(a) He shows no reaction and drives off to his country estate.
(b) He sings loudly with the other revelers as the brewery collapses.
(c) He frantically alerts the fire brigade, but they are too drunk to help.
(d) He weeps openly on front of the entire town.

15. Tom tells us that as a young teenager Mary liked to "experiment" with boys. Whom does he NOT suspect her of sleeping with?
(a) Dick Crick.
(b) Harold Metcalf.
(c) Tom Crick himself.
(d) Freddie Parr.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following does NOT draw Mary and Tom closer together?

2. Why does Tom Crick decide to study the history of the Fens?

3. Which part of London does the couple move to once they are married and Tom takes a job as a history teacher?

4. How does Tom eventually arrange to marry Mary, even though her father Harold Metcalf hates him?

5. What is the agreement between Helen and Ernest Atkinson in exchange for Ernest allowing Helen to marry Harry Crick?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 921 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample