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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who says, "explaining's a way of avoiding the facts while you pretend to get near to them?"
(a) Lewis Scott.
(b) Mary Crick.
(c) Tom Crick.
(d) Price.

2. What does Tom compare the sound of Dick's motorcycle to the evening Mary has broken up with Tom?
(a) A bomber airplane.
(b) The growling of an angry beast.
(c) Machine gun fire.
(d) The thudding of his own heart.

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

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

5. What does Tom Crick's new-coined term "histrionics" refer to?
(a) The combined study of history and economics.
(b) Being hysterically enthusiastic about something.
(c) Changing history through technology.
(d) Throwing an angry fit because what has happened is history and cannot be changed.

6. What is Henry Crick's occupation?
(a) Lock keeper at the Atkinson Lock.
(b) History teacher.
(c) Brewmaster at the Atkinson Brewery.
(d) Barge captain on the River Ouse.

7. What tells Tom that he and Mary must finish their argument quickly because the park is about to close?
(a) The sunset glistening on the duck pond.
(b) The park-keeper's bell.
(c) The gruff voice of the park warden asking others to leave.
(d) The steady stream of dog owners towards the park gates.

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

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

10. What does Tom compare his father to as every day he sees him trudge back and forth along the canal?
(a) A caged wolf.
(b) A blind ox.
(c) A chained falcon.
(d) A tethered dog.

11. Which boy is most aggressive about asking the two girls to take their clothes off?
(a) Freddie Parr.
(b) Tom Crick.
(c) Peter Baine.
(d) Dick Crick.

12. What about Mary strikes Tom when he returns from Germany at the end of World War II to marry her?
(a) How much more beautiful she has become.
(b) How frail and vulnerable she seems.
(c) How tough and independent she has become.
(d) How much of her old spark and curiosity she has lost.

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

14. What is the agreement between Helen and Ernest Atkinson in exchange for Ernest allowing Helen to marry Harry Crick?
(a) That Helen will help Ernest commit suicide.
(b) That Helen will become a nurse at the Kessling Hall asylum.
(c) That Helen will find a way to assuage Sarah Atkinson's ghost.
(d) That Helen will have Ernest's child.

15. What does Tom Crick mean by the term "Natural History"?
(a) History as it would progress if humans didn't attempt to interfere in it constantly.
(b) The study of human nature through stories to see what human beings truly are like.
(c) The history of animals, plants, and other life forms.
(d) The history of the world as seen through the lense of science.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is one of the books Tom Crick reads that he finds in the trove of books collected by his great-aunts Louisa and Dora?

2. What does Freddie Parr do to Mary as revenge for setting him up to lose the competition because she knew he couldn't swim?

3. What marks the end of Ernest Atkinson's political career?

4. What does Tom Crick tell his students is the difference between animals and humans?

5. Why does his most outspoken student reject Tom Crick's attempt to teach the class history?

(see the answer keys)

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