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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Instead of living up to their ideals of freedom, brotherhood, and equality, Tom says the French revolutionaries turned straight to what?
(a) Destroying their own civilization.
(b) Mob rule and mass murder.
(c) The radical capitalism of Adam Smith.
(d) Napoleon and his promises of glory and Empire.

2. What is NOT one of the grotesque details Tom Crick lists to show that the French Revolution should better be remembered for its guillotines than for the festive spirit of the French on July 14th, when they "prefer fairy tales" about their history.
(a) Corpseless heads that rolled their eyes and screamed.
(b) Ravens picking at piles of corpses.
(c) Headless corpses that flailed and kicked.
(d) Old women knitting at the scaffold.

3. What is NOT one of the emblems of by-gone years that Tom includes in his list of memories he wants Mary to recall?
(a) Two crossed ears of barley on ships' bows.
(b) Fireworks over the Fens.
(c) Steam trains.
(d) Fairy tales.

4. What is Mary doing at the windmill when Tom finds her?
(a) She jumps so she falls on her stomach to kill her unborn child.
(b) She is sleeping with Dick.
(c) She is talking to the wind as if it were a person.
(d) She is cutting herself with a razor blade.

5. What is NOT a positive personality trait associated with phlegm, and one notably absent from most of the major characters of the novel?
(a) Fieriness.
(b) Patience.
(c) Calm.
(d) Sobriety.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is not one of the things Tom does in the evenings when he alone?

2. What does Tom Crick say is the mission of a history teacher?

3. What does Tom think is a superstition people believed in "once upon a time"?

4. What does Tom compare migrating geese to in the winter of 1943?

5. How does Tom react to finding the child Mary has stolen?

(see the answer keys)

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