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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is Mr. Wray?
(a) A French spy.
(b) A special ops undercover British agent.
(c) A retired British lawyer.
(d) Maturin's oldest and best friend.

2. What rumors once existed about Mrs. Fielding?
(a) She was a French spy.
(b) She was having an affair with Nelson.
(c) She was a British undercover agent.
(d) She was having an affair with Aubrey.

3. What does Martin say he has been contemplating?
(a) Settling in the West Indies.
(b) Marriage.
(c) Leaving the Navy.
(d) Suicide.

4. Whom does the crew consider a Jonah?
(a) Mowett.
(b) Maturin.
(c) Allen.
(d) Hollom.

5. What region does the Surprise pass through that is considered difficult?
(a) The Bermuda Triangle.
(b) No area is any more difficult than any other area.
(c) The doldrums.
(d) The lee side of the West Indies islands.

6. What mission is Aubrey given?
(a) To wait in the West Indies for a new assignment.
(b) To capture or destroy the USS Norfolk.
(c) To dry dock Surprise for new cannons.
(d) To return Mr. Wray to London.

7. Who commands Surprise?
(a) Captain Fielding.
(b) Captain Stephen Maturin.
(c) Captain Jack Aubrey.
(d) Captain Hollom.

8. Where does Aubrey recruit some dozen of the new sailors on the Surprise?
(a) An insane asylum.
(b) The local bars.
(c) A penal colony.
(d) Other ships.

9. What happens to over half of the whales killed?
(a) They are brought successfully to port.
(b) They have no oil and are sunk.
(c) They are lost and not rendered into oil.
(d) They are eaten by sharks.

10. Why does Maturin find Allen's conversation interesting?
(a) Maturin wonders about the claims about the Bermuda Triangle.
(b) Maturin once was on a vessel captured by pirates.
(c) His father was a whaler.
(d) He loves natural history.

11. What does Hollom begin that is scandalous?
(a) Reading a novel considered to be evil.
(b) Reading Tom Jones.
(c) A sexual affair with Mrs. Horner.
(d) Nothing.

12. What has the Surprise been doing prior to docking here?
(a) Having a series of adventures in the Mediterranean.
(b) Capturing slavers in the West Indies.
(c) Been in dry dock being refitted.
(d) Returning the British diplomat to the United States.

13. When does Maturin bleed the entire crew?
(a) When one man seems to have the plague.
(b) When one of the wives comes down with malaria.
(c) When one man comes down with typhus.
(d) When the ship enters the tropics.

14. What does Aubrey feel compelled to do concerning Hollom?
(a) Offer him a position aboard Surprise.
(b) Give him some money.
(c) Fight a duel for him.
(d) Report to Admiral Stearns about Hollom's incompetence.

15. Why does Aubrey need a schoolteacher?
(a) He has no need of a school teacher.
(b) He is ferrying a group of families to the West Indies.
(c) He has many young midshipmen.
(d) He is bringing two of his sons on board for his next assignment.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Surprise send mail home?

2. What good news does Surprise receive?

3. Why do whaling ships have prominent crow's nests?

4. How many previous names has Surprise had?

5. Who once gave Mrs. Fielding passage aboard his ship?

(see the answer keys)

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