That Hideous Strength, Chapter 1: Sale of College Property quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What scholarly work is Jane trying to force herself back to in the opening of Chapter 1?

   • A biography of Merlin written for Dr. Dimble
   • Correct answer: A doctorate thesis on Donne and the body
   • A paper on the medieval statutes of Bracton
   • A translation of Malory's Arthurian legends

   Jane's planned work is a doctorate thesis on Donne, stressing his triumphant vindication of the body. She turns to the newspaper instead and remembers the dream.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does the morning paper reveal about the first face in Jane's dream?

   • It is a Bracton Fellow named Denniston
   • It is Lord Feverstone in an old portrait
   • Correct answer: It is Alcasan, a radiologist just executed
   • It is Warden Shovel of Bragdon Wood

   The headline announces the execution of Alcasan, a distinguished radiologist, an Arab by descent, guillotined for poisoning his wife. Jane sees the prisoner's head from the nightmare on the back page.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What gives Mark the keenest pleasure on his walk to college?

   • The beauty of Edgestow in the morning sun
   • Correct answer: Curry's use of we, which means Mark is inside
   • News that Denniston has left for a monastery
   • A promise that junior stipends will rise today

   Mark barely notices the street. What delights him is Curry's we: Curry and his gang have become the progressive element, and Mark is now included.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does N.I.C.E. stand for in this chapter?

   • Correct answer: National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments
   • National Institute for Clinical Excellence work
   • New Institute of College Expansion at Edgestow
   • National Institute of Co-ordinated Education

   Lewis names it the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments, the first-fruit of a fusion between the state and the laboratory, now seeking a site at Edgestow.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Which feature of Bragdon Wood lies inside the area the N.I.C.E. wants?

   • The Newton quadrangle only
   • The Fellows' bowling-green only
   • Correct answer: Merlin's Well and its pavement
   • The Inigo Jones gate and nothing else

   The Bursar admits that the Well itself is in the pink area on the plan. Access is to be guaranteed and the pavement preserved, but the college would no longer own the heart of the Wood.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How does Lord Feverstone stop Canon Jewel's protest?

   • He moves to refer Jewel's speech to a later meeting
   • He offers Jewel a higher stipend if he will sit down
   • He claims Jewel is no longer a voting Fellow here
   • Correct answer: He says Jewel is better served by remaining silent

   Feverstone springs up, looks straight at the old man, and says that if Canon Jewel wishes them not to hear his views, his end could be better attained by silence. Jewel sits; the motion is carried.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Why does Jane nearly faint at the Dimbles' lunch table?

   • Mrs. Dimble tells her that she is pregnant
   • Correct answer: Dimble's talk of Merlin and digging matches her dream
   • Mark telephones to say the Wood has already been felled
   • She recognizes Curry as the visitor in the nightmare

   Dimble speaks of a language rather like Spanish, of Merlin buried but not dead under Bragdon Wood, and of what the N.I.C.E. might find if it digs. The overlap with Jane's dream overwhelms her.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 1?

   • Mark and Curry stop at the Bristol for a drink before the meeting.

     Happened

   • Mark sits through dinner in Curry's rooms with Lord Feverstone.

     Didn't happen

   • The Fellows carry the motion to sell the pink area on the plan.

     Happened

   • Workmen begin digging at Merlin's Well before nightfall.

     Didn't happen

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these happen during Jane's day in Chapter 1?

   • Jane buys a hat and is taken home to lunch by the Dimbles.

     Happened

   • Jane tells Mrs. Dimble that she is going to have a baby.

     Didn't happen

   • Dr. Dimble asks Jane to consider a helper whose address he and Margery will give.

     Happened

   • Jane walks to Brizeacre after lunch and begins analysis.

     Didn't happen

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does imponderables mean in: "The real reasons are the sort that Watson would call imponderables"?

    • Correct answer: Things too vague or unofficial to weigh in public
    • College debts the Bursar has already written off
    • Scientific instruments used beside Merlin's Well
    • Proxy votes the Warden can cast while in London

    Mark means the real case for Feverstone's fellowship is influence and usefulness in London, not a reason easy to state in a college meeting. Curry replies that he would not mind explaining those reasons in public.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does restive mean in: "the College began to be restive"?

    • Eager to sell Bragdon Wood at once
    • Correct answer: Impatient and unwilling to be pushed further
    • Moved by Curry's appeal to ancient monuments
    • Ready to invite the spiritualists into the Wood

    After Curry reads a preservation society's letter about the wall, the Well, and access for antiquaries, the Fellows grow restive: irritable and resistant, not compliant. That mood is then used to shut the outer world out.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does gallimaufrey mean in Warden Shovel's phrase "a gallimaufrey of papistry, gentilism, lewdness and dunsicall folly"?

    • A legal fence around college land
    • A ceremonial cup used at elections
    • Correct answer: A confused jumble or hodgepodge
    • A hymn sung at Merlin's Well

    A gallimaufrey is a motley mixture. Shovel uses the word to condemn the old popular rites around the well when he walls the Wood in Elizabeth's reign.

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