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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator's middle-aged employee offer to do for Bartleby?
(a) Teach him manners.
(b) Teach him better work habits.
(c) Fire him.
(d) Black his eyes.

2. What previous employment had shaped Bartleby?
(a) Working in a dead letter office.
(b) Working as a court reporter.
(c) Working in a morgue.
(d) Working on a locomotive.

3. Why does the captain decide not to flog Steelkilt?
(a) Steelkilt makes an inaudible threat.
(b) He suddenly feels sorry for Steelkilt.
(c) He suddenly feels ashamed of his own behavior.
(d) He suddenly feels the menace of the rest of the crew.

4. How much does the uncle in "The Happy Failure" think his invention is worth?
(a) More than a life's work.
(b) More than his house.
(c) More than gold.
(d) More than silver.

5. What happens to the rooster when the Merrymusk family dies?
(a) The rooster crows on the graves.
(b) The rooster goes home with the narrator.
(c) The rooster dies too.
(d) The rooster is sold for five hundred dollars.

6. Of what does the onstage action in the London theater remind the narrator?
(a) His own childhood.
(b) The theater at home on Broadway.
(c) The church service he had watched from the bell tower.
(d) The curmudgeonly landlady at his boarding house.

7. What country possessed the Encantadas at the time Melville wrote?
(a) Peru.
(b) Chile.
(c) Bolivia.
(d) Colombia.

8. What has the uncle in "The Happy Failure" invented?
(a) A device for draining swamps.
(b) A device for diverting rivers.
(c) A device for purifying water.
(d) A device for building dams.

9. What part of the United States does the narrator of the Town-Ho's story claim is much like the sea?
(a) The Erie Canal.
(b) The Great Lakes region.
(c) The Mississippi.
(d) Lake Tahoe.

10. Why does the Town-Ho's captain have to put the ship into port?
(a) Its crewmen are ill with scurvy.
(b) It has run out of supplies.
(c) It has sprung a leak.
(d) There has been a mutiny on board.

11. What food does Bartleby appear to eat exclusively?
(a) Pine nuts.
(b) Ginger nuts.
(c) Chestnuts.
(d) Porridge.

12. What office does the narrator of Bartleby hold that no longer exists?
(a) Justice of the Peace.
(b) County Coroner.
(c) Mayor.
(d) Master of Chancery.

13. Who are Pedro and Sebastian in The Town-Ho's Story?
(a) Friends of the narrator.
(b) Writers.
(c) Sailors on the Pequod.
(d) Sailors on the Town-Ho.

14. What does the crew decide to do after Steelkilt is flogged?
(a) Murder Radney.
(b) Desert together.
(c) Start a mutiny.
(d) Obey the captain.

15. What is the main task of the narrator's youngest employee in Bartleby?
(a) Copying.
(b) Cook.
(c) Errand boy.
(d) Legal research.

Short Answer Questions

1. With what alliteration does Melville describe the islands?

2. Where does the narrator in The Town-Ho's story tell his tale?

3. Whose job is it to normally sweep the deck of a ship?

4. What does Blandmour believe God does for the poor?

5. Why does Coulter come home for lunch?

(see the answer keys)

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