Oliver Twist

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. How does Oliver’s mother die?

2. How old is Oliver when the parish board sends him to labor in a workhouse?

3. In what profession does Oliver ultimately receive an apprenticeship?

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following quotes best reflects the novel’s use of irony to critique social institutions?

A) “The hungry and destitute situation of the infant orphan was duly reported by the workhouse authorities to the parish authorities” (Chapter 2).

B) “The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men, and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once, what ordinary folks would never have discovered—the poor people liked it!” (Chapter 2).

C) “‘Well,’ replied the undertaker, ‘I was thinking that if I pay so much towards [the poor], I’ve a right to get as much out of ‘em as I can, Mr Bumble; and so—and so—I think I’ll take the boy myself’” (Chapter 4).

D) "I wish some well-fed philosopher, whose meat and drink turn to gall within him; whose blood is ice, whose heart is iron; could have seen Oliver Twist clutching at the dainty viands that the dog had neglected” (Chapter 4).