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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. 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 stole a baby from a stroller in a supermarket.
(d) She has developed Alzheimer's disease.

2. 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 curses the judge and accuses Tom Crick of killing Freddie.
(c) He goes to sit on the train tracks to commit suicide, but no train appears.
(d) He has a heart attack in the court room and dies on the spot.

3. What does Tom Crick find in the river that he thinks caused the bruise that killed Freddie Parr?
(a) A cricket bat with an odd indentation and a label that reads F.P.
(b) A metal ball from a slingshot Tom has seen Jack Parr use to kill birds.
(c) A beer bottle from the defunct Atkinson brewery.
(d) A wrench Dick uses to fix his motorbike.

4. Whom does Tom Crick quote as saying, "we cannot step into the same river twice?"
(a) Heraclitus of Ephesus.
(b) Cicero.
(c) Dionysius the Areopagite.
(d) Socrates.

5. What is the River Tom Crick describes at great length to explain how the landscape of the novel's setting is formed?
(a) The Ouse.
(b) The Tyne.
(c) The Cam.
(d) The Thames.

Short Answer Questions

1. How old is Sarah Atkinson when she dies?

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

3. What does Tom Crick think the French really celebrate on Bastille Day when they mark the beginning of the French Revolution?

4. Which part of London does the couple move to once they are married and Tom takes a job as a history teacher?

5. What is Tom Crick's response to this revelation?

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter 28, Tom explains why he turned to history and stories as passionately as he did. Why is that?

2. 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?

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

4. 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.

5. What is the surprise Tom Crick encounters when he stands up to speak at the end of chapter 48?

6. What is the significance of phlegm for the body according to chapter 51?

7. 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.

8. In chapter 13, Tom Crick uses a pun on the word "histrionics" to explain his feelings. What is that pun and what is its significance?

9. 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?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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