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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. In one town, what was built instead of public housing the town desperately needed?
(a) A museum.
(b) A recreational area.
(c) A library.
(d) A town hall.

2. In what position must the fillers work?
(a) On their knees.
(b) Slouching over.
(c) Standing up.
(d) Sitting.

3. What is "traveling?"
(a) The unpaid time it takes to crawl through the tunnels to the job site.
(b) Going up and down in the elevator.
(c) The unpaid time it takes to get from the job site to the eating area.
(d) Getting to and from the mine from the miner's home.

4. What were newspaper canvassers?
(a) They were door-to-door advertisement salesmen.
(b) They were door-to-door pollsters for the political candidate.
(c) They were door-to-door salesmen selling newspaper subscriptions.
(d) They were door-to-door surveyers for the census.

5. What were some of the most common conditions Orwell notes of housing in the industrial areas?
(a) Unopenable windows, bugs, and overcrowding.
(b) Overcrowding, no roof, no dishes.
(c) No hot water, no electircity, no roof.
(d) Bugs, no bedding, no stove.

Short Answer Questions

1. When a miner comes up from the pit, why does he appear to be pale?

2. Who were the fillers?

3. What does "one up, one down" mean?

4. How did Orwell describe Mr. Brooker?

5. What could happen to cause a miner to lose one or two days pay?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Orwell come to write "The Road to Wigan Pier?" When did he write the book? For whom? What were the three parts of the book when it was originally published?

2. What were the newer government (Corporation) houses like? What were the positive and negative aspects of the housing?

3. Who were the Brookers? How did Orwell describe them? What did they look like? Behave like?

4. What were the three terms Orwell used to describe the construction of the substandard housing in Wigan and Sheffield? How are they each affected by the lavatories available to them?

5. How did Orwell describe the housing in the industrial towns of England? When were most of the houses built?

6. Why did Orwell make the comparison between the miner's wages and the amount of coal and money the coal mines produce? What did he want the reader to understand?

7. Describe the elevator that took Orwell and the miners down to the tunnels.

8. When people moved into the Corporation housing, what were some of the restrictions by which they had to abide?

9. What were some of the common conditions in the houses Orwell studied for his book?

10. What is nystagmus? How is it contracted? How is it cured? What happened to a miner in Orwell's time who contracted nystagmus?

(see the answer keys)

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