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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. What about the scene at the Lode does NOT remind Tom of the later scene of Freddie Parr's death?

2. Tom confronts Price about his frequent interruptions during class. What question does Price's reluctance about history boil down to?

3. What does Ernest Atkinson do that marks the first step in his family's economic decline?

4. What about Mary strikes Tom when he returns from Germany at the end of World War II to marry her?

5. What causes the soldiers at the 1915 Royal Cambrideshire Militia parade to stumble out of formation?

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter 6, Tom Crick suggests that the Fens and history have what in common?

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

3. In chapter 46, Tom opens his mother's chest in the attic and finds a few items. What are they and what is their significance?

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

5. 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.

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

7. In chapter 24, Tom, Dick, Freddie Parr, Mary Metcalf, and a few other kids are playing together near the water. What is the importance of the eel to all the events that transpire afterwards?

8. Chapter 49 is one more chapter Tom Crick spends lamenting what happens when idealists begin revolutions and lose sight of their ideals. What is that example?

9. 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?

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.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Carefully consider the character of Sarah Atkinson from Graham Swift's novel Waterland. Using specific examples from the novel, trace how she captures the imagination of her two sons, of the people of the town of Gildsey, and of her descendants. Finally, analyze what Sarah's life might symbolize in Tom Crick's narrative about the Fens and its people.

Essay Topic 3

The idea that the landscape of the Fenlands, the River Ouse, the personalities of the characters, and the course of history are closely intertwined plays a major role in Graham Swift's novel Waterland. Describe the landscape as Swift relates it and then choose three characters whose personalities and fate appear to be tied to the nature of the Fenlands. Discuss how that relationship plays out in the decisions and accidents that shape their life. Analyze whether Swift's view of the Fenlands and its people holds up, given the examples you have just described.

(see the answer keys)

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