Chapter 105 - Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish? - Will He Perish? Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

Comprehension Quiz: Chapter 105 - Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish? - Will He Perish?

According to Ishmael, how do modern whales compare in size to their Tertiary-period fossil ancestors?

  • Modern whales are significantly smaller than their ancestors
  • Modern whales are superior in magnitude to their fossil ancestors
  • Modern and ancient whales are roughly the same size
  • The fossil record provides no useful comparison data

How long was the largest pre-Adamite whale skeleton (the Alabama specimen)?

  • Less than fifty feet in length
  • Less than seventy feet in length
  • Approximately one hundred feet in length
  • Over one hundred and twenty feet in length

Which ancient naturalist did Ishmael say described whales that "embraced acres of living bulk"?

  • Aldrovandus, the Renaissance encyclopedist
  • Pliny, the Roman natural historian
  • Lacepede, the French whale expert
  • Aristotle, the Greek philosopher

What analogy does Ishmael use to argue that whales have NOT shrunk since ancient times?

  • Ancient Greek temples are no larger than modern buildings
  • Egyptian mummies are no taller than modern humans, and ancient cattle no bigger than modern prize stock
  • Roman roads are no wider than modern highways
  • Medieval ships are no longer than modern sailing vessels

What animal does Ishmael compare to whales when considering the possibility of extinction?

  • The dodo, which had recently gone extinct
  • The elephant, hunted for thousands of years by monarchs of the East
  • The American buffalo, which had been decimated on the prairies
  • The great auk, which was being hunted to extinction

Why does Ishmael argue that the buffalo precedent does NOT apply to whales?

  • Because buffalo were killed by disease, not hunting
  • Because whales are more intelligent and can evade hunters
  • Because whale hunting is vastly less efficient—forty men take forty whales versus forty thousand buffalo
  • Because buffalo lived in a smaller territory than whales

According to Ishmael, how have whale social patterns changed over time?

  • Whales have become solitary creatures that avoid all contact
  • Whales have migrated permanently to tropical waters
  • Scattered pods have aggregated into vast but widely separated herds
  • Whale populations have split into dozens of small competing groups

What are the two "firm fortresses" that Ishmael says will permanently protect whale-bone whales?

  • The deep ocean trenches and underwater caves
  • The polar seas of the Arctic and Antarctic
  • The Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Japan
  • The warm currents of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio

To what European people does Ishmael compare the whales retreating to polar waters?

  • The Dutch retreating behind their dikes during floods
  • The Swiss retreating to their mountains when their valleys are invaded
  • The Scots retreating to the Highlands during English invasions
  • The Norse retreating to their fjords during Roman campaigns

How many whale-bone whales does Ishmael say are killed annually on the northwest coast by Americans alone?

  • Not less than 1,300 per year
  • Not less than 5,000 per year
  • Not less than 13,000 per year
  • Not less than 30,000 per year

What animal does Ishmael cite to prove that a species can survive thousands of years of hunting?

  • The horse, domesticated since prehistoric times
  • The lion, hunted by Roman gladiators
  • The elephant, hunted by Semiramis, Porus, and Hannibal
  • The bear, hunted across Europe for centuries

How long does Ishmael estimate whales can live?

  • Approximately 30-40 years at most
  • About 50-60 years on average
  • A century or more, with several generations overlapping
  • Over 500 years, making them nearly immortal individually

Which famous landmarks does Ishmael say the whale once swam over?

  • The Parthenon, the Colosseum, and the Great Wall
  • The Tuileries, Windsor Castle, and the Kremlin
  • Stonehenge, the Pyramids, and the Forbidden City
  • Westminster Abbey, Notre Dame, and St. Peter's Basilica

What is the chapter's famous concluding declaration about the whale?

  • The whale is the most dangerous creature ever to inhabit the seas
  • The whale is immortal in his species, however perishable in his individuality
  • The whale will someday be understood by science and tamed by man
  • The whale is God's greatest creation and should never be hunted

In hindsight, why was Ishmael's optimism about whale survival proven wrong?

  • Climate change destroyed the whales' food supply before hunting could
  • Industrial whaling technology (steam ships, exploding harpoons) made hunting vastly more efficient
  • Whales were killed primarily by pollution rather than by hunting
  • Ishmael was actually correct and whale populations never declined significantly

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