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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Tom compare the sound of Dick's motorcycle to the evening Mary has broken up with Tom?

2. What causes the soldiers at the 1915 Royal Cambrideshire Militia parade to stumble out of formation?

3. What sort of proof does Mary offer that Dick cannot be the father of her child?

4. What does Tom Crick tell his students is the question humans must always ask about history?

5. What is the great mystery about the eel that nobody has been able to explain?

Short Essay Questions

1. In chapter 50, Harry Crick is bed-ridden in Tom's and Mary's first house in Gildsey. What made him ill?

2. In chapter 47, Tom explains why he thinks Mary's mental illness can't be healed. Explain his reasoning.

3. Chapter 26 is a long dissertation by Tom Crick about the mating habits of the eel. Recall three theories about how eels procreate that naturalists have advanced over the millennia.

4. IIn Chapter 43, what significant change occurs in Tom and Price's attitude toward history?

5. In chapter 3, the narrator discusses the history of the Fens in eastern England and human attempts to drain them and make them fit for agriculture. "Strictly speaking," the narrator says what about the effort to "reclaim" the Fens?

6. In chapter 29, Tom comes up with a way to test whether Dick killed Freddie Parr. What does he do to provoke a reaction from Dick? What reaction does he get?

7. In chapter 43, Tom Crick parts from Price shouting "don't let him do it!" What is he referring to and what theme that has run through the novel is this a culmination of?

8. In chapter 23, Tom Crick asserts that the 14th of July festivities the French celebrate as Bastille Day are more of a fairy tale than anything else. What makes him say so?

9. in chapter 15, Tom Crick gives a history of the River Ouse and the Fenlands in its river valley. List at least three details from the river's history.

10. In chapter 32, Tom Crick describes the relationship between Mary and Dick. Why does Mary say she wants to "educate" Dick and what is the version of events that she tells Tom?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Carefully consider the relationship between the characters Tom Crick and Mary Metcalf in Graham Swift's novel Waterland. Using specifics from the novel, recount the ups and downs of their relationship. What in Tom's and Mary's personalities leads to how their relationship plays out? Finally, analyze what the significance of story-telling (or its absence) is for their relationship.

Essay Topic 2

Carefully consider the character of Sarah Atkinson from Graham Swift's novel Waterland. Using specific examples from the novel, trace how she captures the imagination of her two sons, of the people of the town of Gildsey, and of her descendants. Finally, analyze what Sarah's life might symbolize in Tom Crick's narrative about the Fens and its people.

Essay Topic 3

A central tenet of Graham Swift's novel Waterland is that history has something circular about it. Using specifics from the novel, examine one example from the story that supports that idea. Explain the impact that circular nature of history has on how the novel unfolds. Analyze whether the narrator, Tom Crick, is projecting his own theory onto the story in this regard and why he might want to do so. Support your opinion with specific references from the book that show what sort of person Tom is and what his agenda might be.

(see the answer keys)

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