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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What secret does Tom reveal to his students about Lewis Scott, the headmaster of the school?
(a) The headmaster keeps whisky bottles in his filing cabinet.
(b) The headmaster was once arrested for cross-dressing.
(c) The headmaster cheated to receive his university degree.
(d) The headmaster is having an affair with his secretary, Miss Plum.

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

3. 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 sunset glistening on the duck pond.
(d) The gruff voice of the park warden asking others to leave.

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

5. What is the landscape the novel is set in?
(a) The Lake District in northern England.
(b) The Fens in eastern England.
(c) The coastline of Cornwall.
(d) The docks of East London.

Short Answer Questions

1. Tom Crick mentions a similarity his father found between his home and the battlefields of World War I. What is that similarity?

2. What does the phrase "in loco parentis" mean?

3. Which of the following is NOT a theory that biologists have put forward about how eels reproduce?

4. Johannes Schmidt, whose theory about eels and their mating habits is considered the most accurate one, thought that eels mate where?

5. What is the name of the ale Ernest Atkinson brews that seems to cause the end of any respect for him in Gildsey because it is too good?

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter 22, the role of Ernest Atkinson in the events of Coronation Day is ambiguous. Please describe the events of Coronation Day and why they appear to have happened.

2. In chapter 37, Tom Crick discusses the idea of terror and how it aids people in pretending they're changing the world for the better. What are some examples Tom gives from the French Revolution?

3. Chapter 18 once again recounts the conversation the headmaster Lewis Scott and Tom Crick have about Tom's forced retirement. The headmaster attempts to diffuse the tension by offering Tom large amounts of what?

4. Chapter 16 is titled "Longitude 0°." What is this a reference to?

5. in chapter 44, Tom Crick and his wife Mary return the baby Mary stole to the Safeways store where she found it. What are Tom's fears as they approach the mother of the child and how does the mother react?

6. in chapter 15, Tom Crick gives a history of the River Ouse and the Fenlands in its river valley. List at least three details from the river's history.

7. Chapter 49 is one more chapter Tom Crick spends lamenting what happens when idealists begin revolutions and lose sight of their ideals. What is that example?

8. In chapter 21, Tom Crick asks, "when the past tries to demolish itself, how do you demolish the past?" What is he getting at?

9. At the end of chapter 47, Tom says that "we all come to out asylums." Where is he when he says this and what does he mean?

10. As he watches Dick ride off on his motorbike at the end of chapter 46, Tom states that Dick rides as if he has the legacy of the Atkinsons on his back. How so?

(see the answer keys)

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