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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 does Santiago wish he could show the fish?
(a) How many fathoms of line he had in the boat.
(b) How his hand was cramped.
(c) What manner of man the fish was up against.
(d) His club he would use to kill the fish.

2. Something brings Santiago out of his reverie. What is it?
(a) The man-of-war bird lands on his boat.
(b) Something tugging at his line.
(c) A dolphin jumps over his boat.
(d) The wind gets stronger.

3. What marlin does Santiago think about as he considers this fish he has on his line?
(a) The first marlin he ever caught.
(b) The marlin he and the boy caught 86 days ago.
(c) A female marlin that her mate kept jumping up to see where she was.
(d) A marlin that once broke his line and got away.

4. What disappointment does the old man feel because he has been out in his boat for days?
(a) He does not know the baseball game scores.
(b) He has not been able to go to the cock fights.
(c) He has not had a beer in two days.
(d) He cannot remember what the boy looks like.

5. What happens when the shovel-nose shark comes and Santiago stabs it in the brain with his makeshift harpoon?
(a) The shark almost pulls the old man overboard.
(b) At that moment the wind dies down.
(c) The knife blade snaps off.
(d) The knife comes untied from the oar.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the old man think he killed the fish for besides food and to keep himself alive?

2. What does the old man do to prepare for the arrival of the shark?

3. Why does Santiago feel sorry for the terns?

4. What does Santiago believe are in the sea?

5. What assistance for the old man does the boy try to get?

Short Essay Questions

1. What indicates that Santiago has no idea of catching the largest marlin ever landed in those waters?

2. Explain the meaning of the statement that Santiago loved the lions in his dreams like he loved the boy.

3. Explain the significance of the scattered thoughts of the old man as he struggles to hold onto the fish.

4. By nightfall, Santiago recognizes a change in direction. Explain how he knows that.

5. What new indication tells Santiago and the reader that this is a truly remarkable fish after the moonlight jump?

6. Discuss the physical infirmity that begins to plague Santiago on the second day at sea.

7. Why did Santiago give up arm wrestling?

8. Discuss how Hemingway uses the man-of-war bird, the dolphins, and the flying fish to explain the nature of life in the sea.

9. How does Santiago compare himself to the great sea turtles that are as big as a skiff and weigh a ton?

10. Describe the danger the Portuguese man-of-war man of war poses to a fisherman in a boat.

(see the answer keys)

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