View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is Bates looking for in Chapter 3?

2. Who gets fired by the end of Chapter 23 over the missing money?

3. Where does Roswell go with his friend in Chapter 18?

4. Who notices that five dollars is missing from the cash drawer in Chapter 23?

5. Who eloped with John Talbot, Bates' clerk, in Chapter 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Dick try to help Henry in Chapter 1 of Mark the Match Boy?

2. How does Mark's life change in Chapter 12?

3. How does Ben try to help Mark get his twenty-five cents in Chapter 6?

4. Why are Dick and Henry sympathetic to Mark?

5. Why is Bates looking for his grandson?

6. How does Mark find a job in Chapter 15?

7. What is unique about the five dollar bill that Roswell stole in Chapter 23?

8. Describe how Mark feels about begging.

9. Describe how Dick and Henry react to the sleeping child on the Brooklyn ferry.

10. How is the money that Mark receives parallel to the experience that Dick had?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Secrecy is a recurring theme in Ragged Dick and Mark the Match Boy. Which characters have secrets, and what are they? How are these secrets revealed? Do these secrets result in ominous consequences or not? Do any of them have happy endings? Discuss.

Essay Topic 2

Alger employs simple, yet bold, and effective language with some powerful symbolism. Choose an example of symbolism. Briefly describe it, and identify the technique which it embodies.

Essay Topic 3

Describe Roswell. What is his role in Ragged Dick and Mark the Match Boy? What was Alger trying to accomplish by creating Roswell's character in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 759 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample