Book II - Chapter XV. Knitting Quiz — A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

Comprehension Quiz: Book II - Chapter XV. Knitting

How many consecutive mornings has there been early drinking at the Defarge wine-shop when the chapter opens?

  • Two mornings, starting on Tuesday
  • Three mornings, starting on Monday
  • Five mornings, starting on the previous Thursday
  • One morning, which is the day of the road-mender's arrival

What code name does Defarge assign to the mender of roads?

  • Jacques Three, as the third recruit from the provinces
  • Jacques Five, the newest member of the network
  • Jacques Six, indicating his low rank in the group
  • He is given no code name and is called only "the witness"

Where does the secret meeting of the Jacques take place?

  • In a hidden cellar beneath the wine-shop's main floor
  • In the garret where Doctor Manette once sat making shoes
  • In a private back room behind the wine-shop counter
  • In a church crypt across the courtyard from the shop

According to the road-mender's testimony, what happens to the tall man after he is captured by soldiers?

  • He is taken to Paris and tried before the King's court
  • He is driven through the village with musket-butts, imprisoned, and eventually hanged on a forty-foot gallows
  • He escapes during the night and is never recaptured
  • He is tortured in the manner of Damiens and dismembered publicly

Who was Damiens, mentioned by Jacques Three during the meeting?

  • A fictional character Dickens invented to illustrate aristocratic cruelty
  • A historical figure tortured and executed in 1757 for attempting to assassinate Louis XV
  • The tall man's brother who also tried to kill the Marquis
  • A famous revolutionary leader who inspired the Jacques network

What verdict do the Jacques reach regarding the Evrémonde family?

  • They should be watched but not yet registered for punishment
  • The château and all the race are to be registered as doomed to destruction
  • Only the current Marquis should be targeted, not the entire family
  • They decide to postpone judgment until after the revolution begins

What is Madame Defarge's knitting revealed to be in this chapter?

  • An ordinary domestic hobby that calms her nerves during tense times
  • A coded register of names and crimes of those marked for execution
  • A collection of patterns she plans to sell at market for income
  • A series of coded messages she sends to other revolutionary cells

What answer does Madame Defarge give when a bystander at Versailles asks what she is knitting?

  • "A blanket for the poor children of Saint Antoine"
  • "Many things—scarves for the coming winter season"
  • "Shrouds"—a chilling reference to burial garments
  • "Nothing of consequence, monsieur, only a simple pattern"

Why does Defarge approve of the road-mender cheering for the King and Queen at Versailles?

  • He believes it shows the road-mender has abandoned revolutionary sympathies
  • He thinks the cheering will protect them from being identified as revolutionaries
  • He explains that peasant adulation makes the royals more insolent, hastening revolution
  • He is testing whether the road-mender can be trusted with more dangerous assignments

What analogy does Defarge use to explain why he shows the road-mender the royal court?

  • A shepherd showing wolves to his flock so they learn to defend themselves
  • Showing a cat milk to make it thirst and a dog its prey to make it hunt
  • A teacher showing students fire so they learn to respect its destructive power
  • A farmer letting livestock see green pastures before a long winter indoors

What distinctive physical mannerism characterizes Jacques Three throughout the chapter?

  • He constantly taps his wooden shoes on the floor in nervous agitation
  • His restless hand keeps gliding over the nerves around his mouth and nose, with a hungry craving air
  • He wrings his blue cap between his hands and refuses to sit still
  • He paces back and forth across the garret, unable to remain in one position

What does the gallows beside the village fountain symbolize in this chapter?

  • The people's willingness to sacrifice one of their own for the common good
  • The triumph of royal justice over criminal rebellion against the aristocracy
  • How aristocratic tyranny contaminates the basic necessities and communal life of the village
  • The road-mender's personal guilt for not having helped the condemned man escape

What detail does Dickens use to emphasize the road-mender's harsh life?

  • He is described as having no family and sleeping in a ditch by the roadside
  • He is thirty-five years old but looks sixty, suggesting extreme hardship and premature aging
  • He cannot read or write and must have all instructions repeated to him three times
  • He has never traveled more than five miles from his village before this journey

What comparison does Madame Defarge use to describe the aristocrats at the end of the chapter?

  • Lions in a cage who will someday be set free and devour their keepers
  • Richly dressed dolls to be plucked apart and fine-feathered birds to be stripped
  • Ships sailing toward a storm they cannot see on the distant horizon
  • Flowers growing in a garden that will soon be overtaken by weeds and thorns

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