Animal Farm, Chapter III quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What is notable about the first harvest the animals complete on their own?

   • It fails completely because the animals cannot use human tools
   • It produces only an average yield, but with far less effort than in Jones's time
   • It takes twice as long as when Jones managed the farm
   • Correct answer: It is the biggest harvest the farm has ever seen, finished two days early

   Despite difficulties with tools designed for human beings, the animals bring in the biggest harvest the farm has ever seen, in two days' less time than it had usually taken Jones and his men.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What role do the pigs play during the harvest?

   • Correct answer: They supervise and direct the other animals without doing physical work
   • They handle the tools that need hands while the horses pull the equipment
   • They work alongside Boxer and Clover, pulling the heaviest loads themselves
   • They refuse to participate and remain inside the farmhouse all day

   The pigs "did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others." As Boxer and Clover pull the cutter or the horse-rake, a pig walks behind them calling out "Gee up, comrade!" or "Whoa back, comrade!"

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3. 3

   Question 3. What is Boxer's personal motto in Chapter III?

   • "Donkeys live a long time"
   • Correct answer: "I will work harder"
   • "Four legs good, two legs bad"
   • "Gee up, comrade!"

   Boxer's answer to every problem and every setback is "I will work harder!", which he adopts as his personal motto. He even arranges for a cockerel to call him half an hour earlier than anyone else.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does Napoleon take the nine puppies from Jessie and Bluebell?

   • He believes their mothers are too busy with farm work to care for them
   • He wants to train them as sheepdogs to help with the harvest
   • Correct answer: He claims he will educate them privately, secluding them in a loft
   • He plans to sell them to neighboring farms for supplies

   Napoleon says that the education of the young is more important than anything that could be done for those already grown up. He takes the nine puppies up into a loft and keeps them in such seclusion that the rest of the farm soon forgets their existence.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How does Snowball simplify the principles of Animalism for the less intelligent animals?

   • He drops the commandments about clothes, beds and alcohol as too hard to learn
   • He creates picture books illustrating each of the Seven Commandments
   • Correct answer: He reduces the Seven Commandments to the single maxim "Four legs good, two legs bad"
   • He holds daily reading classes until every animal can recite the commandments

   When many animals prove unable to memorize the Seven Commandments, Snowball declares they can all be reduced to this single phrase, which the sheep chant endlessly.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What argument does Squealer use to justify the pigs keeping the milk and apples?

   • Correct answer: He claims the pigs need them as brainworkers, and Jones will return if they fail
   • He argues that the other animals voted to give the food to the pigs
   • He says the milk and apples are actually bad for non-pig animals
   • He says the pigs earned them as a reward for organizing the rebellion

   Squealer claims that milk and apples contain substances a pig needs ("this has been proved by Science, comrades"), that "We pigs are brainworkers," and then asks whether anyone wants to see Jones come back.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Which of the following best describes the contrast between Snowball and Napoleon in Chapter III?

   • The two leaders share every duty equally and always agree on the resolutions put to the Meeting
   • Correct answer: Snowball forms committees for grown animals; Napoleon says educating the young matters more
   • Napoleon is popular with all the animals, while Snowball is distrusted and left isolated
   • Snowball leaves the committees to others, while Napoleon works tirelessly at organizing them

   Snowball busies himself with Animal Committees and reading classes, while "Napoleon took no interest in Snowball's committees" and says the education of the young matters more, taking the nine puppies into his care. At the Meetings the two are never in agreement.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What happens to most of Snowball's committees?

   • They work well, and the wild creatures are successfully tamed within weeks
   • They succeed in transforming the animals' behavior and the farm's productivity
   • Napoleon shuts all of them down before Snowball can even begin their work
   • Correct answer: They mostly fail, but the reading and writing classes are a great success

   Snowball's Animal Committees are on the whole a failure; the attempt to tame the wild creatures, for instance, "broke down almost immediately." The reading and writing classes, however, are a great success, and by the autumn almost every animal is literate in some degree.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of the following events actually happens in Chapter III?

   • The cat persuades the sparrows to come and perch on her paw
   • Correct answer: The sheep learn to chant "Four legs good, two legs bad" for hours
   • Snowball and Napoleon agree on every resolution put to the Sunday Meeting
   • Boxer learns the whole alphabet and reads the Commandments aloud

   After Snowball reduces the Seven Commandments to one maxim, the sheep bleat "Four legs good, two legs bad!" for hours on end. Snowball and Napoleon are never in agreement, Boxer cannot get beyond the letter D, and the sparrows keep their distance from the cat.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which event does NOT happen in Chapter III?

    • Correct answer: The animals drive Jones off the farm in a violent rebellion
    • Snowball organizes reading and writing classes for the animals
    • The pigs claim the milk and windfall apples for themselves
    • Napoleon takes the puppies from Jessie and Bluebell

    The rebellion occurs in Chapter II, not Chapter III. All the other events — the pigs taking the food, Napoleon taking the puppies, and Snowball's literacy classes — happen in Chapter III.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does the word "cryptic" mean when the narrator calls Benjamin's reply about donkeys "this cryptic answer"?

    • Obvious, simple, and easy for anyone to understand
    • Humorous, meant only to amuse the listener
    • Spoken angrily, with irritation and bitterness in the voice
    • Correct answer: Having a meaning that is mysterious or hard to make out

    "Cryptic" means mysterious or hard to make out. Asked whether he is happier now that Jones is gone, Benjamin says only "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey," and the others have to be content with that.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does the word "windfall" mean when the narrator describes the "windfall apples" reserved for the pigs?

    • Apples that have been stored for the winter season
    • Apples that have been specially selected for their superior quality
    • Correct answer: Apples that fall naturally from trees, blown down by the wind
    • A large and unexpected financial profit or gain

    Windfalls are fruit blown down from the tree by the wind. The animals had assumed as a matter of course that the windfalls would be shared out equally, but the order goes out that they are to be brought to the harness-room for the use of the pigs.

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13. 13

    Question 13. Squealer claims the pigs are "brainworkers" who need special nutrition. What does this term imply?

    • Animals with larger brains who require more food to survive
    • Animals that perform scientific experiments in a laboratory setting
    • Correct answer: Workers who do intellectual or mental labor rather than physical labor
    • Leaders who were democratically elected by the other animals

    A brainworker does mental rather than physical work. Squealer says "We pigs are brainworkers" because "The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us," and uses it to explain why the pigs must have the milk and apples.

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