George Orwell — Questions and answers

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What famous terms from Nineteen Eighty-Four did the world start talking about after the book was released?

Choices

  1. Big Brother, Thought Police, and Newspeak ✓
  2. Animal Farm, Snowball, and Napoleon
  3. Colonial power, Burma, and Imperial Police
  4. Fredric Warburg, London, and 1949

Answer: Big Brother, Thought Police, and Newspeak

From page 1

What important lesson did Eric Blair learn when he worked in Burma with the Indian Imperial Police?

Choices

  1. He learned how to become a police officer.
  2. He learned to love colonial power and its rules.
  3. He saw the unfairness of empire and started to dislike all oppression. ✓
  4. He decided to stay in Burma forever.

Answer: He saw the unfairness of empire and started to dislike all oppression.

From page 2

Why did Eric Blair, who later became George Orwell, choose to live among poor people in Paris and London?

Choices

  1. He wanted to become a famous tramp.
  2. He needed to hide from the police.
  3. He wanted to understand how hard life was for people experiencing poverty. ✓
  4. He was looking for new friends to play with.

Answer: He wanted to understand how hard life was for people experiencing poverty.

From page 3

What did George Orwell do when he went to Northern England in 1936?

Choices

  1. He went on vacation to the beach.
  2. He studied animals in the coalfields.
  3. He wrote a book about the weather.
  4. He lived with workers to show the tough conditions they faced. ✓

Answer: He lived with workers to show the tough conditions they faced.

From page 4

What happened to George Orwell during the Spanish Civil War?

Choices

  1. He won a medal for bravery.
  2. A sniper shot him in the throat. ✓
  3. He became a famous general.
  4. He wrote a new book while fighting.

Answer: A sniper shot him in the throat.

From page 5

Why was it hard for George Orwell to get Animal Farm published at first?

Choices

  1. Publishers thought the story was too short.
  2. The book criticized Russia, who was Britain's ally at the time. ✓
  3. Nobody liked stories about animals back then.
  4. He didn't have a good publisher like Fredric Warburg yet.

Answer: The book criticized Russia, who was Britain's ally at the time.

From page 6

Where did George Orwell go to write Nineteen Eighty-Four while he was very sick?

Choices

  1. To a big city like London.
  2. To the remote island of Jura, Scotland. ✓
  3. To a warm country for his health.
  4. To a library in Paris.

Answer: To the remote island of Jura, Scotland.

From page 7

How did Nineteen Eighty-Four affect people when it was released in 1949?

Choices

  1. It made everyone want to become a spy.
  2. It helped people understand threats to freedom and introduced new words like 'Big Brother.' ✓
  3. It made people laugh and forget their worries.
  4. It taught people how to use computers.

Answer: It helped people understand threats to freedom and introduced new words like 'Big Brother.'

From page 8

After George Orwell died, how were his books Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four used during the Cold War?

Choices

  1. They were put in museums as old stories.
  2. They were used to help people learn new languages.
  3. They became tools to fight against communism. ✓
  4. They were only read by children for fun.

Answer: They became tools to fight against communism.

From page 9

What is special about George Orwell's warnings about power and truth, even today?

Choices

  1. They are only interesting to people who lived a long time ago.
  2. They help us understand problems like too much surveillance and lying, even in the digital age. ✓
  3. They are just stories that don't mean anything anymore.
  4. They only teach us about farm animals.

Answer: They help us understand problems like too much surveillance and lying, even in the digital age.

From page 10