|Name: _________________________||Period: ___________________|
This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Tom tells us that as a young teenager Mary liked to "experiment" with boys. Whom does he NOT suspect her of sleeping with?
(a) Dick Crick.
(b) Tom Crick himself.
(c) Harold Metcalf.
(d) Freddie Parr.
2. What does Tom dream that he considers telling the headmaster about?
(a) He dreams of a woman wailing in a supermarket.
(b) He dreams of Mary as she was when she was 15.
(c) He dreams of Price as the Prime Minister of Britain.
(d) He dreams of the headmaster drowning in a canal.
3. What mesmerized King Canute as he was rowed past Ely?
(a) The beauty of the girls washing laundry near the riverbank.
(b) The chanting of the monks at the Ely monastery.
(c) The singing of the swans in the fens.
(d) The sound of the sea breeze as it rushed through the reeds.
4. Why does Tom Crick decide to study the history of the Fens?
(a) Because it is the only history that holds any fascination for him.
(b) Because the only scholarship to university he can get is for Fenland history.
(c) Because the only history books he can find during the Battle for Britain are local ones.
(d) To avoid thinking about the history that is in the making as World War II rages.
5. What is NOT one of the names the Atkinsons give their special-occasion ales?
(a) The Golden Jubilee.
(b) The Empress of India.
(c) The Grand '51.
(d) The Crimean Victory.
Short Answer Questions
1. What does Dick do when he finds the bottle?
2. What about Mary strikes Tom when he returns from Germany at the end of World War II to marry her?
3. What is the main fish that the Cricks and their neighbors catch for food?
4. What does Freddie Parr do to Mary as revenge for setting him up to lose the competition because she knew he couldn't swim?
5. What was Freddie Parr's father, Jack Parr, infamous for in the Gildsey area?
Short Essay Questions
1. In chapter 8, Tom Crick speaks about how humans tell stories. What are some examples he uses about how history and fiction sometimes seem to overlap?
2. Who does the chapter title "The Saviour of the World" refer to, and what does it mean?
3. In chapter 11, Tom Crick describes the inquest into Freddie Parr's death. What does the judge determine is the official cause of death, and how does he arrive at his conclusion?
4. In chapter 35, Tom Crick returns home from a day of teaching to find Mary has done what?
5. In chapter 47, Tom explains why he thinks Mary's mental illness can't be healed. Explain his reasoning.
6. In chapter 5, what does Tom notice about Freddie Parr's face, and what does he conclude from it?
7. In chapter 48, what is the difficulty the headmaster runs into when he tries to announce Tom Cricks' retirement to the students at the school?
8. 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?
9. Chapter 51 is titled "About Phlegm." What is the significance of phlegm for the novel?
10. 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?
This section contains 1,252 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page)