StudySync Excerpt from 1984

What do the following lines reveal about the state of London that Winston lives in?

"Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours."

• Citizens like Winston are eager to keep themselves physically fit.

• The city has gone into a state of disrepair under the rule of the Party.

• No one lives in private houses anymore under the rule of Big Brother.

• Winston is the type of man who seems to rarely pays his bills.

Which of the following images described in the text are used to demonstrate just how powerful the government presents itself in 1984?

• nothing in the city having color except for the bright Big Brother posters

• a hallway smelling of boiled cabbage and old rag mats

• beautiful books the government allows to be sold in junk shops

• Winston’s varicose ulcer

Which excerpt from the text best supports the idea that Winston is rebellious?

• “His hair was very fair, his face naturally sanguine, his skin roughened by coarse soap and blunt razor blades and the cold of the winter that had just ended.”

• “From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:”

• “Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift.”

• “Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was safer; though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing.”

Which of the following inferences is best supported by the description of the diary Winston has bought?

• The diary once belonged to Party members to keep notes on the citizens.

• Winston thinks that it looks so beautiful because it is an object from a past he can barely remember.

• Winston likes it because he had a diary just like it when he was growing up.

• Winston has purchased it in order to sketch his own drawing of Big Brother’s face.

What is a central idea in the text as seen in the three slogans of the Party?

• Issues like war and freedom no longer have an effect on people’s lives.

• The government in 1984 no longer understands what words mean.

• The slogans of the Party are kept simple because they are not actually that significant.

• The Party is redefining language in order to have more control over the people.

Which sentence from the text most strongly supports the answer to Question 5?

• “Behind Winston’s back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig iron and the overfulfillment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. ”

• “Only the Thought Police mattered.”

• “This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws), but if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by twenty-five years in a forced-labour camp.”

• “Party members were supposed not to go into ordinary shops (’dealing on the free market’, it was called), but the rule was not strictly kept, because there were various things, such as shoelaces and razor blades, which it was impossible to get hold of in any other way.”

Which of the following inferences about Winston writing the date in his diary is best supported by the text?

• It is significant because the lack of records have led to him losing memories of the past.

• It is all that he will be able to bring himself to write.

• He is preparing to write a formal letter airing his complaints to the Ministry of Truth.

• He wishes that he could have dictated the entry into his speakwrite instead of writing in the diary.

Which sentence from the text most strongly supports the answer to Question 7?

• “Apart from very short notes, it was usual to dictate everything into the speakwrite which was of course impossible for his present purpose.”

• “But it was no use, he could not remember: nothing remained of his childhood except a series of bright-lit tableaux, occurring against no background and mostly unintelligible.”

• “A kilometre away the Ministry of Truth, his place of work, towered vast and white above the grimy landscape.”

• “He had given a quick glance up and down the street and then had slipped inside and bought the book for two dollars fifty.”