1984 Unit Test

Print the 1984 Test PDF as shown, copy and paste test questions from the list, or download the test maker for all the 1984 test items, the editable format, and the answer key.

Print or download the 1984 Unit Test PDF as shown, or open the test maker to access all the 1984 test questions, the editable format, and the answer key.

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1984 Test options:

• Print the 1984 Unit Test PDF as shown.
• Download the 1984 Test Maker to select from all 180 test questions and access the answer key.
• Copy and paste the exam items from the list below.
• Get the test maker and the final projects menu: 1984 Assessments Bundle.

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1984 Test: Comprehension Questions (multiple choice)

1) What is the significance of the book’s title?

A. 1984 is the current year in the story.
B. 1984 was the year of the revolutionary war that changed everything.
C. This is the main character’s ID number.
D. This is the number of people that the government “disappears” every month.

2) Why is Emmanuel Goldstein celebrated in Winston’s society?

A. He oversees The Agency of Order.
B. He designed the COMM-wire system.
C. He gave his life defending the country.
D. Trick Question! He is hated and vilified.

3) Which of these identifies a daily ceremony in which Winston must engage?

A. The Prayer of Allegiance
B. The Pain of Sacrifice
C. The Two Minutes Hate
D. The Ten Sacraments of UNI-POL

4) Why is Winston’s telescreen always on?

A. It cannot be turned off.
B. He doesn’t want his neighbors to hear his illegal activities.
C. He feels compelled to keep track of the official announcements.
D. Trick question! He turns it off sometimes.

5) The Party-endorsed form of language is found in the __________________ Dictionary.

A. Ministry of Progress
B. Comrade Goldstein
C. Newspeak
D. Fraternal

6) How can one recognize Party members?

A. They have short hair or shaved heads.
B. All Party members have green eyes.
C. They have a tattoo on their right hand.
D. Party members wear blue overalls.

7) Winston feels confident that he can recognize agents of the Thought Police by…

A. The way that they walk.
B. Their peculiar habits and schedules.
C. Asking them one simple question.
D. Trick question! He is not confident at all.

8) Which of these is NOT included as evidence that the war is real?

A. Trucks full of enemy prisoners drive through the city.
B. Letters from Winston’s friend in the army.
C. Exploding rockets hitting the city.
D. The news talks about battles, fortifications, deployments, etc.

9) When Winston and Julia finally decide about their future, they agree to…

A. Disguise their identities and run away.
B. Talk to O’Brien about joining the rebellion.
C. End their relationship on New Year’s Day and forget it ever happened.
D. Petition for a marriage license.

10) How many independent countries exist in the fictional world of 1984?

A. 190
B. 90
C. 9
D. 3

11) Which choice is NOT a way that Winston tries to learn the truth about the past?

A. He visits his childhood home to look for a box of newspapers.
B. He borrows a book from his neighbors.
C. He questions an elderly man in a bar.
D. He looks at physical evidence in an antiques store.

12) Which choice accurately reflects the Party’s view on sexual relations?

A. Only a married couple should enjoy sex.
B. Everyone should be promiscuous (many partners) and sexually liberated.
C. Procreation (making babies) is appropriate; sexual pleasure is not.
D. No natural pregnancies! Children must come from the Population Laboratory.

13) Winston’s attitude toward the proles changes from ____________ to ____________.

A. Disgust to admiration
B. Pity to fear
C. Appreciation to loathing
D. Fascination to disinterest

14) Where is Julia when Winston goes to his meeting with O’Brien?

A. She is at her job at the Ministry.
B. She is at one of her charity clubs.
C. She is at the secret apartment.
D. She also goes to meet with O’Brien.

15) What sudden change does the Party make during Hate Week?

A. The Party has a new leader.
B. They have decided to tear down all the churches and places of worship.
C. The war is now being fought with Eastasia.
D. The proles will now be Party members.

16) The Book of the Brotherhood explains that the purpose of Oceania’s war is…

A. To make the members of the Party rich.
B. To keep people in fear and hardship.
C. To create one government for the world.
D. Trick question! The Book explains that there is no war. It is a fraud.

17) How does Julia react when Winston reads The Book of the Brotherhood to her?

A. She becomes angry and refuses to listen.
B. She calmly disagrees with almost everything The Book has to say.
C. She cries and feels overwhelming relief.
D. She falls asleep.

18) Where is the last place anyone would want to be taken within the Ministry of Love?

A. The principal’s office
B. Room 101
C. The Absolution Chamber
D. The Enhanced Education Chamber (EEC)

19) O’Brien explains that the cruelty inflicted by the Party will end when…

A. The proles and the Party members unite and establish true equality.
B. “There are no more ‘Winston Smiths’ left in the world.”
C. “Eastasia has been definitively wiped off the face of the Earth.”
D. Trick question! The cruelty will never end.

20) How does Winston finally convince O’Brien to show him mercy?

A. He begs for death.
B. He stops caring about Julia.
C. He laughs in his face.
D. He talks in his sleep.

21) Which of these characters turned out to be an operative of the Thought Police?

A. Comrade Parsons
B. Julia (no last name given)
C. Mr. Charrington
D. Trick question! None of these.

22) What happens when Julia and Winston reunite at the end of the novel?

A. They talk briefly about what has changed.
B. They act as if they have never met.
C. They reaffirm their plan to run away.
D. Trick question! They have no reunion.

23) Where is Winston spending his time in the final chapter of 1984?

A. The Red Eagle Social Club
B. O’Brien’s apartment
C. The Chestnut Tree Café
D. The cafeteria of the Ministry of Love

24) By the end of the novel, it is clear that…

A. Winston will continue to fight the Party.
B. Julia was working for the Thought Police.
C. The Ministry of Love’s methods work.
D. The proles and the Outer Party are finally ready to fight back.

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1984 Test: Literary Knowledge (multiple choice)

25) In what year did George Orwell write his novel 1984?

A. 1948
B. 1984
C. 1884
D. 2004

26) Which choice accurately reflects the historical context of 1984?

A. During World War II
B. During the Spanish Civil War
C. During the rise of Nazism
D. During the Cold War

27) Which choice does NOT belong within the genre of speculative fiction?

A. A story about a woman who gains x-ray vision after an accident.
B. A movie about Australia after World War III and environmental collapse.
C. A novella about a community on Mars.
D. A novel about a man who meets three very different spiritual leaders.

28) The hypothetical (imaginary) setting of 1984 is best described as…

A. Realistic utopia.
B. Totalitarian dystopia.
C. Capitalist democracy.
D. Religious collective.

29) The story focuses on Winston’s thoughts and feelings, but Winston is not doing the telling. The narrator is actually…

A. A newspaper reporter.
B. A government official at a trial.
C. Undefined. (The teller is not identified.)
D. Trick question! Winston is narrating.

30) “_____________________ is information or messages of a biased or misleading nature intended to promote a particular viewpoint, agenda, or ideology.”

A. Slander
B. Legislation
C. Propaganda
D. Censorship

31) Which choice is NOT associated with propaganda?

A. Considering opposing arguments
B. Logical fallacies / fallacious reasoning
C. Appeals to emotion
D. Posters and other print media

32) To which literary element does this excerpt relate?

… For the first time the magnitude of what he had undertaken came home to him. How could you communicate with the future? It was of its nature impossible. Either the future would resemble the present, in which case it would not listen to him: or it would be different from it, and his predicament would be meaningless.

A. Imagery
B. Pacing
C. Point of view
D. External conflict

33) Which structural device does Orwell use to create mystery and suspense surrounding Julia and her intensions?

A. Irony
B. Neologism
C. Ambiguity
D. Parallel construction

34) Which of the following is NOT a function of the motif of dreaming in the novel?

A. To foreshadow the importance O’Brien will have in Winston’s life.
B. To characterize Winston through his memories and emotions.
C. To establish “The Golden Country” as a symbol of giving up.
D. To connect images, events, symbols, and characters in the mind of the reader.

35) The name of Winston’s building (Victory Mansions) and the name of the Ministry of Love are both examples of…

A. False dichotomy.
B. Verbal irony.
C. Sensory details.
D. Parallelism.

36) What is the significance of this excerpt?

… The great purges involving thousands of people, with public trials of traitors and thoughtcriminals who made abject confession of their crimes and were afterwards executed, were special show-pieces not occurring oftener than once in a couple of years. More commonly, people who had incurred the displeasure of the Party simply disappeared and were never heard of again. (44)

A. Structural device (framing)
B. Historical context (Stalinism)
C. Characterization (traits)
D. Genre study (magical realism)

37) Which of the following choices is NOT a form of foreshadowing?

A. Concrete (Chekhov’s gun)
B. External conflict
C. Word choice (connotations)
D. Flashforward

38) Which choice accurately reflects Winston’s character arc?

A. His external conflict and his internal conflict led to unexpected consequences.
B. He finds the love of his life while he is trying to join the rebellion.
C. Fearful and wretched -> rebellious and heroic -> crushed and submissive
D. He can trust no one (not even himself).

39) Which of these choices is an example of a dynamic character?

A. O’Brien
B. Julia
C. Emmanuel Goldstein
D. Syme

40) Which of the following best represents an allusion in the novel 1984?

A. The recitation of “Oranges and Lemons”.
B. O’Brien explains the Roman Empire.
C. Winston buys a beautiful and rare diary.
D. The reader believes (incorrectly) that O’Brien can be trusted.

41) Which choice relates LEAST to this quote from 1984?

“Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me:
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree.” (77)

A. Symbol / motif
B. Inciting incident (plot)
C. Theme development (betrayal)
D. Foreshadowing

42) Which of these was NOT an important life experience that influenced the views of Orwell?

A. Serving in the colonial police
B. Fleeing Germany to escape the Nazis
C. Fighting in the Spanish Civil War
D. Experiencing poverty and homelessness

43) Which choice is NOT an important element of the novel’s historical context?

A. The ascendency (rising) of Joseph Stalin
B. The aftermath of World War II
C. Advances in communications technology
D. The economic collapse of 1952

44) The inclusion of “bourgeoisie,” “comrade,” working class uniforms, and “proles” relate to which document?

A. The Magna Carta
B. The U.S. Constitution
C. The Communist Manifesto
D. Plato’s Republic

45) Which character develops the theme that Party loyalty does not ensure one’s safety?

A. Julia
B. Charrington
C. Parsons
D. O’Brien

46) Winston’s dreams in 1984 are best identified as an example of…

A. An authorial intrusion.
B. A motif.
C. A dynamic character.
D. A parallel plot.

47) Which location is the best example of a symbol in 1984?

A. Winston’s office
B. The cafeteria
C. The Chestnut Tree Café
D. Winston’s apartment

48) What role does the large woman singing outside the window play in 1984?

A. She serves as a symbol by representing the human spirit.
B. She enables a plot twist.
C. She is a character foil (opposite of Julia).
D. She is an allegory representing the Party’s oppression of individuality.

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1984 Final Test: Short Answer Questions

49) Explain how the government in 1984 attempts to “control the past.”

50) Analyze this excerpt in terms of Orwell’s language style and word choice:

… As he looked at the woman in her characteristic attitude, her thick arms reaching up for the line, her powerful mare-like buttocks protruded, it struck him for the first time that she was beautiful. It had never before occurred to him that the body of a woman of fifty, blown up to monstrous dimensions by childbearing, then hardened, roughened by work till it was coarse in the grain like an over-ripe turnip, could be beautiful. But it was so, and after all, he thought, why not? The solid, contourless body, like a block of granite, and the rasping red skin, bore the same relation to the body of a girl as the rose-hip to the rose. Why should the fruit be held inferior to the flower? (219)

51) Characterization: Complete the table below to compare Winston and Julia. Address the more meaningful aspects of personality rather than basics such as age or occupation.

52) Matching: Pair each example to the appropriate propaganda technique.

53) Analyze the following excerpts together in terms of theme development:

He examined the chess problem and set out the pieces. It was a tricky ending, involving a couple of knights. “White to play and mate in two moves.” Winston looked up at the portrait of Big Brother. White always mates, he thought with a sort of cloudy mysticism. Always, without exception, it is so arranged. In no chess problem since the beginning of the world has black ever won. Did it not symbolize the eternal, unvarying triumph of Good over Evil? The huge face gazed back at him, full of calm power. White always mates. (289)

…

… He could hear just enough of what was issuing from the telescreen to realize that it had all happened, as he had foreseen; a vast seaborne armada had secretly assembled a sudden blow in the enemy’s rear, the white arrow tearing across the tail of the black. Fragments of triumphant phrases pushed themselves through the din: “Vast strategic maneuver—perfect co-ordination— utter rout—half a million prisoners—complete demoralization—control of the whole of Africa—bring the war within measurable distance of its end—victory—greatest victory in human history—victory, victory, victory!” (296-7)

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1984 Test: Extended Answer

54) Symbolism: Complete the essay frame to analyze how and why Orwell uses symbolism. Explain three symbolic elements from 1984 and reach an overarching conclusion about how Orwell uses symbolism in the novel.

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