Chapter 96 - The Try-Works Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

Comprehension Quiz: Chapter 96 - The Try-Works

What are the try-works on a whaling ship?

  • Sleeping quarters for the crew below deck
  • A brick furnace with iron pots used to render whale blubber into oil
  • A system of ropes and pulleys for hauling whale carcasses
  • A navigation room where charts and compasses are stored

Where on the deck are the try-works positioned?

  • At the stern near the tiller and compass
  • Between the foremast and mainmast, the most roomy part
  • On the forecastle at the very front of the ship
  • Below deck in a specially reinforced hold

After the initial wood fire, what fuels the try-works?

  • Coal brought aboard at the last port of call
  • The rendered blubber scraps (fritters) from the whale itself
  • Whale bones ground into powder for burning
  • Tar and pitch stored in barrels below deck

Who orders the try-works to be started on this voyage?

  • Captain Ahab, who oversees all major operations
  • Stubb, the second mate, whose duty it is
  • Starbuck, the cautious first mate of the Pequod
  • Flask, the third mate from Martha's Vineyard

How does Melville describe the smell of the try-works smoke?

  • Sweet and fragrant, like burning incense or cedar
  • Like "the left wing of the day of judgment" and funereal pyres
  • Sharp and acrid, similar to burning gunpowder
  • Mild and barely noticeable over the ocean winds

What does Melville say the Pequod, laden with fire and burning a corpse, resembles?

  • A floating cathedral devoted to whaling tradition
  • The material counterpart of Ahab's monomaniac soul
  • A merchant vessel from the ancient Phoenician fleet
  • A peaceful lighthouse guiding ships through darkness

What nearly happens to the ship because of Ishmael's trance at the helm?

  • The ship runs aground on an uncharted reef
  • Ishmael turns around backward and the ship nearly capsizes
  • The try-works fire spreads to the rigging and sails
  • A whale rams the ship while the crew is distracted

What is the meaning of Ishmael's warning "Look not too long in the face of the fire"?

  • Avoid standing near the try-works to prevent physical burns
  • Do not become consumed by obsessive darkness or despair
  • Always wear protective gear when working near flames
  • Fire worship is a violation of Christian teaching

What does Melville call "the only true lamp"?

  • The binnacle lamp that illuminates the compass
  • The glorious, golden, glad sun over the natural world
  • The light of Ecclesiastes and Solomon's wisdom
  • The flames of the try-works that reveal truth

What book does Melville call "the fine hammered steel of woe"?

  • The Book of Job, which recounts suffering
  • Ecclesiastes, Solomon's meditation on vanity
  • The Gospel of Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount
  • Proverbs, with its advice on righteous living

According to Melville, what kind of mortal "cannot be true"?

  • One who pursues wealth above all other concerns
  • One who has more of joy than sorrow in him
  • One who refuses to go to sea and face nature
  • One who questions the existence of a higher power

What does the Catskill eagle metaphor represent?

  • The American spirit of manifest destiny and expansion
  • Souls that can dive into darkness and soar above it again
  • The predatory nature of the whaling industry itself
  • Ahab's personal emblem carved on the Pequod's prow

What geometric discovery does Ishmael make while polishing the try-pot with a soapstone?

  • That circles inscribed in squares have consistent area ratios
  • That all bodies gliding along a cycloid descend in the same time
  • That the curvature of the pot matches the earth's curvature
  • That triangles formed by the pot's rivets are always equilateral

What does "There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness" mean?

  • All wise people eventually go mad from too much thinking
  • Wisdom requires confronting sorrow, but total surrender to despair is destructive madness
  • Sadness is always a sign of deep intelligence and learning
  • Madness and wisdom are essentially the same spiritual state

Who does Melville describe as "the whale-ship's stokers" in the try-works scene?

  • The youngest apprentice sailors on their first voyage
  • The pagan harpooneers, called Tartarean shapes by Ishmael
  • Stubb and Flask, the second and third mates together
  • Hired dockworkers who joined the ship for this task

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