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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) An asylum for the mentally ill.
(b) A hospital for the wounded of World War I.
(c) A museum in honor of Sarah Atkinson.
(d) A school for orphans.

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

3. Where do the Cricks find the body of Freddie Parr?
(a) Sprawled in shrubbery by the side of the Ouse River Road.
(b) Slumped over the table at Jack Parr's house.
(c) Drifting along the canal at the Atkinson Lock.
(d) Hung from the rafters in the Cricks' barn.

4. How does Freddie Parr's father Jack react to the ruling by the court that Freddie's death was an accident?
(a) He walks out of the court room and is never seen again.
(b) He has a heart attack in the court room and dies on the spot.
(c) He curses the judge and accuses Tom Crick of killing Freddie.
(d) He goes to sit on the train tracks to commit suicide, but no train appears.

5. What did Johannes Schmidt conclude about the difference between the European eel and the American eel?
(a) There is no difference, genetically.
(b) The American eel eats its young, whereas the European eel does not.
(c) The European eel has far more offspring.
(d) The American eel has a shorter lifespan.

6. 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 proclaims that he believes Sarah Atkinson's ghost haunts his bedroom.
(d) He bathes in a public fountain with some of his Cambridge classmates.

7. What is Tom Crick's response to this revelation?
(a) He turns Freddie Parr in to the police constable.
(b) He begins to be afraid of Dick.
(c) He starts flirting intensely with Mary to outdo all the other boys.
(d) He reads history books when Dick is out wooing Mary.

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

9. Where does Tom put the bottle that he found drifting in the water after Freddie Parr's death?
(a) Out by the road, where he hopes the police constable will see it.
(b) He accidentally leaves it on the kitchen table.
(c) In Dick's room, where Dick would see it.
(d) He ties it to the tail pipe of Dick's motorbike.

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

11. Who is the patron saint of Gildsey?
(a) St. Gertrude of the Marshes.
(b) St. Gunnhilda.
(c) St. Mary.
(d) St. Julian of Norwich.

12. 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.

13. Tom Crick's wife, Mary, has been sent to a mental institution. Why?
(a) Tom Crick hit her over the head and she lost her mind.
(b) She began to scream at odd times of the night.
(c) She has developed Alzheimer's disease.
(d) She stole a baby from a stroller in a supermarket.

14. What is the lesson about history that Tom Crick draws from the study of eel mating behavior?
(a) The true future of mankind lies West of the Atlantic Ocean.
(b) The eel is much more adapted to life on earth than humans are.
(c) While humans die, some life forms like the eel seem to live forever.
(d) What human beings think of as major historical events makes little difference to other life on earth.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does Tom Crick mean by the term "Natural History"?

3. What does Tom notice for the first time when Mary struggles with Freddie Parr's prank?

4. What is Ernest Atkinson's reaction to the fire?

5. What does Tom Crick find in the river that he thinks caused the bruise that killed Freddie Parr?

(see the answer keys)

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