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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 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 sells them to the city of Gildsey for the use of the fire brigade.
(c) He converts them into pleasure cruise ships.
(d) He names them after his daughter, Helen I, Helen II, and Helen III.

2. What competition does Mary demand the boys take part in before she takes off her last piece of clothing for the winner?
(a) An underwater swimming competition.
(b) A footrace to the bridge and back.
(c) A competition to find and catch the largest eel.
(d) A wrestling match.

3. 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?
(a) Gildsey Flood Ale.
(b) Diamond Jubilee Ale.
(c) Coronation Ale.
(d) Helen Atkinson Ale.

4. How did Tom's parents meet?
(a) His father was recovering from World War I in a mental asylum where his mother was a nurse.
(b) His father delivered a crate of eels to the house where Tom's mother lived.
(c) His father heard her shouting one day because she'd sprained an ankle and rescued her.
(d) His father came home as a war hero and his mother was the prettiest girl at the parade.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Lewis Scott, the headmaster at the school where Tom Crick teaches, thinks history should be considered part of what other field?

2. What tells Tom that he and Mary must finish their argument quickly because the park is about to close?

3. What medical condition is Tom afraid that Mary might have?

4. Whom does Tom Crick quote as saying, "we cannot step into the same river twice?"

5. What is the River Tom Crick describes at great length to explain how the landscape of the novel's setting is formed?

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter 41, Mary makes a decision to see someone for help with her miscarriage. Whom does Mary want to go and see?

2. In chapter 23, Tom Crick asserts that the 14th of July festivities the French celebrate as Bastille Day are more of a fairy tale than anything else. What makes him say so?

3. In chapter 5, what does Tom notice about Freddie Parr's face, and what does he conclude from it?

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

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. Chapter 39 is about Mary's reaction to her pregnancy and to Tom's joy about it. What does Tom find her doing and what is the reason she gives?

8. In chapter 25, Tom Crick gauges the reaction of his students at his racy revelations. What does he observe about rebellion in this context?

9. 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?

10. In chapter 45, what is the symbolic significance of where Dick elected to hide the key from Tom to their mother's chest?

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