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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. Who bails water from the boat?
(a) The captain.
(b) The correspondent.
(c) The oiler.
(d) The cook.

2. What floats by to taunt the men?
(a) Seaweed.
(b) Seagulls.
(c) A message in a bottle.
(d) A jacket.

3. How long has it been since the four men have slept?
(a) Four days.
(b) A week.
(c) Two days and nights.
(d) A few hours.

4. What do the men do to gain assistance from the wind in Part 3?
(a) Hide under the boat.
(b) Row the oars.
(c) Nothing.
(d) Make a sail.

5. What do the men construct in Part 3 that yields immediate results?
(a) The sail.
(b) Complaining about their circumstances.
(c) Yelling for help.
(d) Fishing for dinner.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the only thing the men can see at the book's beginning?

2. Who is injured?

3. Who is rowing when the lighthouse comes into view?

4. What does the correspondent argue about?

5. What do the waves threaten to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the correspondent feel about the recalled story when he read it?

2. Why does the chance of survival seem optimistic at best?

3. In Part 4, where does the captain instruct the others to take the boat, and why?

4. Who rows together, and how?

5. What does the correspondent think would happen in different circumstances as he sees the shark?

6. When the captain interrupts the correspondent's reverie, what does he say, and how do the men react?

7. Throughout their adventure, how does the relationship between the four men change, and why?

8. Why is it important for the oiler and correspondent to retain their strength at the end of Part 6?

9. Why do the four men construct a sail, and how?

10. What would the men think if they could view their situation from a different vantage point?

(see the answer keys)

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