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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 sort of feet did the apple-tree table have?
(a) Marble balls.
(b) Hooves like Satan.
(c) Carved mahogany.
(d) Brass fittings.

2. In "The Piazza," how does the narrator's house look to the inhabitants of the mountain cottage?
(a) Like a palace.
(b) Like a mansion.
(c) Like a prison.
(d) Like a happy place.

3. What indicates to Captain Delano that the strange ship may be in trouble?
(a) The ship is giving a distress signal.
(b) The ship is bound for an uninhabited island.
(c) The ship seems uncertain of its direction.
(d) The ship flies no flag.

4. What does the narrator decide to give the apple-tree table when he first discovers it?
(a) A happier book.
(b) A warm environment.
(c) Kind attention.
(d) A place of honor.

5. Why does the narrator of "I and My Chimney" identify with his chimney?
(a) They are both obese old smokers.
(b) They are both. the center of attention.
(c) They are both an annoyance to the household.
(d) They are both tall and handsome.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the lightning rod salesman feel about thunderstorms?

2. What caused the bell-ringing automaton to kill Bannadonna?

3. What impresses the narrator about the mill?

4. What first alarms the narrator about the apple-tree table?

5. What surprises Captain Delano when he first sees Benito Cereno's ship?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't the narrator in "The Piazza" grant Marianna's wish and tell her that he is the resident of the house that she believes contains happiness?

2. What is Captain Delano's intention in boarding Benito Cereno's ship?

3. What does the landscape painter, B. Hobbema Brown, believe about the Marquis de Grandvin?

4. What seems odd about Benito Cereno's ship when Captain Delano first sees it?

5. How have the Knights Templar changed, according to Melville's observations, in "The Paradise of Bachelors"?

6. What haunts the narrator at the conclusion of "The Piazza"?

7. Why does the owner of the paper factory in "The Tartarus of Maids" tell the narrator that all of his workers are called "girls"?

8. Why does the narrator of "I and My Chimney" believe his chimney is good for invalids?

9. What is unusual about the bug that emerges from the apple-tree table in the story of that name?

10. Why is the narrator despondent at the beginning of "The Fiddler"?

(see the answer keys)

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