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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 is the great mystery about the eel that nobody has been able to explain?
(a) How long eels have existed.
(b) What family of species the eel really belongs to.
(c) Where and how eels mate.
(d) How eels can live both in salt water and fresh water.

2. 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 robbed and drowned by thugs.
(d) Freddie had been hit on the head with a bottle.

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

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

5. Lewis Scott, the headmaster at the school where Tom Crick teaches, thinks history should be considered part of what other field?
(a) General Studies.
(b) Liberal Arts.
(c) Civics.
(d) Geography.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the worst thing Tom Crick can imagine?

2. What is the landscape the novel is set in?

3. What did Johannes Schmidt conclude about the difference between the European eel and the American eel?

4. Who says, "explaining's a way of avoiding the facts while you pretend to get near to them?"

5. What does Dick do when he finds the bottle?

Short Essay Questions

1. Chapter 51 is titled "About Phlegm." What is the significance of phlegm for the novel?

2. In chapter 29, Tom comes up with a way to test whether Dick killed Freddie Parr. What does he do to provoke a reaction from Dick? What reaction does he get?

3. In chapter 1, the narrator describes the Crick family's relationship with the Fens how?

4. Chapter 9 details the rise of the Atkinson family through various activities and involvements. After Tom Atkinson marries Sarah Turnbull. Sarah becomes a pivotal character in the Atkinson story. How?

5. In chapter 32, Tom Crick describes the relationship between Mary and Dick. Why does Mary say she wants to "educate" Dick and what is the version of events that she tells Tom?

6. In chapter 48, what is the difficulty the headmaster runs into when he tries to announce Tom Cricks' retirement to the students at the school?

7. Chapter 26 is a long dissertation by Tom Crick about the mating habits of the eel. Recall three theories about how eels procreate that naturalists have advanced over the millennia.

8. In chapter 7, Tom describes the complicated relationship between Mary, Tom, Freddie Parr, and Dick. Briefly discuss the main dynamics of this relationship.

9. In chapter 31, Price tells Tom Crick about the student club he is part of. What club is that and what is its purpose?

10. In chapter 4, what is the reasoning the headmaster Lewis Scott gives Tom Crick for laying Tom off and merging history with General Studies?

(see the answer keys)

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