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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 about the scene at the Lode does NOT remind Tom of the later scene of Freddie Parr's death?
(a) A bottle drifting in the water.
(b) Freddie Parr in the water.
(c) A boat-hook lying on the riverbank.
(d) Dick standing on the wooden bridge.

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

3. The headmaster of the school where Tom Crick teaches history thinks Tom should retire from his job. Why?
(a) History will be eliminated from the curriculum.
(b) All of the above.
(c) Tom Crick has stopped teaching the syllabus.
(d) The headmaster does not like Tom Crick.

4. Johannes Schmidt, whose theory about eels and their mating habits is considered the most accurate one, thought that eels mate where?
(a) In river springs.
(b) The Sargasso Sea.
(c) The Gulf of Mexico.
(d) The Arctic Ocean.

5. What is the main fish that the Cricks and their neighbors catch for food?
(a) Trout.
(b) Salmon.
(c) Carp.
(d) Eel.

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. Which of the following does NOT draw Mary and Tom closer together?

3. How did Tom's parents meet?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter 2, a student called Price interrupts Tom Crick, the history teacher, to tell him what about history?

2. In chapter 50, Harry Crick spends a lot of time thinking about the significance of the bed he is lying in. What is his conclusion?

3. In chapter 35, Tom Crick returns home from a day of teaching to find Mary has done what?

4. In chapter 17, Tom Crick discusses his difficulties in trying to marry Mary Metcalf. What are the sources of those difficulties?

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

6. In chapter 43, Tom Crick parts from Price shouting "don't let him do it!" What is he referring to and what theme that has run through the novel is this a culmination of?

7. In chapter 10, Tom Crick explains that he thinks the most important question is the question "why?" How does he use Louis XVI's fate to illustrate that point?

8. 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?

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

10. 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.

(see the answer keys)

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