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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. How did Tom's parents meet?

4. 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?

5. What is the term Tom Crick keeps using to refer to Mary's attitude towards the world when she was an adolescent?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

3. In chapter 38, Tom describes the death of his mother from the flu. What is most remarkable about it to him?

4. Briefly discuss how, in chapter 44, his interview with the police unravels Tom's earlier ideas about teaching the facts of history.

5. In chapter 3, the narrator discusses the history of the Fens in eastern England and human attempts to drain them and make them fit for agriculture. "Strictly speaking," the narrator says what about the effort to "reclaim" the Fens?

6. 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?

7. In chapter 42, a new-found confidante helps Mary to get something Mary wants. What is that?

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 47, Tom explains why he thinks Mary's mental illness can't be healed. Explain his reasoning.

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

One of the strains in the novel Waterland concerns the differences between Tom Crick and his student Price. Outline their initial disagreements. Then discuss how Tom slowly guides Price from opposing the study of history to finding it worthwhile. In the novel, this occurs through a series of steps that are both philosophical and personal. Make sure to trace them in a detailed, logical, and chronological fashion. In your conclusion, analyze whether it is Tom who has changed Price or Price who has changed Tom.

Essay Topic 2

Carefully consider the relationship between the characters Tom Crick and Mary Metcalf in Graham Swift's novel Waterland. Using specifics from the novel, recount the ups and downs of their relationship. What in Tom's and Mary's personalities leads to how their relationship plays out? Finally, analyze what the significance of story-telling (or its absence) is for their relationship.

Essay Topic 3

In Graham Swift's novel Waterland, the narrator Tom Crick is a history teacher. He frequently interrupts his lessons to talk to his students about the meaning of history. At one point, he claims that history primarily teaches about human nature by teaching about humanity's mistakes. Using specific examples from the novel, examine how Tom supports that theory with the stories he tells. Recount at least two such mistakes from the novel and explore their implications. Analyze whether Tom successfully makes his case. If so, what is it about human nature that he is trying to show?

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