Chapter 34 - The Cabin-Table Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

What is Ahab doing when Dough-Boy announces dinner?

• Reading a book in his cabin
• Reckoning the latitude on his ivory leg
• Pacing the quarter-deck
• Scanning the horizon for whales

In what order do the officers descend to the cabin for dinner?

• Flask, Stubb, Starbuck, Ahab
• Ahab, Stubb, Starbuck, Flask
• Ahab, Starbuck, Stubb, Flask
• Starbuck, Ahab, Stubb, Flask

What does Flask do on the quarter-deck when he finds himself alone?

• He stares silently at the sea
• He dances a hornpipe over Ahab's head
• He argues with Dough-Boy
• He practices with his harpoon

To what animal does Melville compare Ahab at the dinner table?

• A hawk
• A grizzly bear
• A mute, maned sea-lion
• A great white whale

What historical banquet does Melville compare the cabin meals to?

• The Last Supper
• The feast of Belshazzar alone
• The Coronation banquet at Frankfurt
• A Roman Saturnalia

Why does Daggoo sit on the floor during meals?

• It is a custom from his homeland
• A bench would bring his head to the low ceiling beams
• There are not enough chairs
• He prefers to eat standing or crouching

What item does Flask never presume to help himself to at the table?

• Bread
• Rum
• Butter
• Salt

How does Melville describe Dough-Boy's parentage?

• The son of a whaling captain and a schoolteacher
• The progeny of a bankrupt baker and a hospital nurse
• An orphan raised in a London workhouse
• The child of a minister and a seamstress

Ahab explicitly forbids conversation at the dinner table.

Tashtego darts a fork at Dough-Boy's back to make him move faster.

In the context of this chapter, what does "abstemious" mean as applied to Daggoo?

• Extremely large and powerful
• Restrained and moderate in eating
• Frightening and intimidating
• Silent and withdrawn

What does "circumspection" mean when Melville writes that the mate "swallowed it, not without circumspection"?

• Great hunger
• Careful wariness
• Physical discomfort
• Religious devotion

When Melville calls the harpooneers "residuary legatees" of the feast, he means they are:

• Unwelcome guests at the table
• Those who receive what remains after others have finished
• The rightful owners of the cabin
• Foreign dignitaries being honored