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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What famous person expressed a good opinion of the narrator of Bartleby?
(a) Theodore Roosevelt.
(b) John D. Rockefeller.
(c) John Jacob Astor.
(d) Andrew Carnegie.

3. How does the narrator of "The Two Temples" attend the meeting at the church?
(a) He disguises himself as the bell ringer.
(b) He hides in the bell tower.
(c) He sneaks into the foyer.
(d) He bribes the man who guards the door.

4. What good qualities does Bartleby have as an employee?
(a) He is enthusiastic and energetic.
(b) He is eager to help.
(c) He is hard-working and honest.
(d) He is amiable and friendly.

5. How does the narrator accommodate the weakness of his oldest scrivener?
(a) By giving him unimportant papers in the morning.
(b) By giving him unimportant papers in the afternoon.
(c) By hiring an assistant for him.
(d) By allowing him to work only half a day.

Short Answer Questions

1. What two characteristics does Melville attribute to the islands of the Encantadas?

2. With what alliteration does Melville describe the islands?

3. Why does Coulter come home for lunch?

4. Why does the captain fear to shoot Steelkilt for his insubordination?

5. What do the crew members do as soon as the Town-Ho reaches port?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Melville believe that American poor suffer more than European poor?

2. What did Steelkilt's followers decide to do upon their release?

3. Why did the first seven of Steelkilt's men come out of their imprisonment?

4. What was disrespectful about Radney asking Steelkilt to sweep the deck?

5. Why did the two remaining followers of Steelkilt each hope to be the first out of the hold?

6. In "Rich Man's Crumbs," why is the narrator called a "graceless ragamuffin"?

7. What does the narrator say happens to one in command who discovers a subordinate who is "significantly his superior"?

8. In "The Happy Failure," what is the uncle's great invention?

9. Why does the narrator continue to accept Bartleby's refusals?

10. Why does Melville refer to Oberlus as "a creature whom it is religion to detest?"

(see the answer keys)

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