For Whom the Bell Tolls • Of Mice and Men • Prof. Iman & Dr. Diana Dasouki • 4th Year, Aleppo University
The August 2026 paper settles it — and the two halves have swapped ends. The older papers examined For Whom the Bell Tolls then The Old Man and the Sea. The newest paper examines Of Mice and Men first, then For Whom the Bell Tolls.
| Question numbers | On the older papers | On the AUGUST 2026 paper |
|---|---|---|
| Q1–20 | For Whom the Bell Tolls — Prof. Iman | Of Mice and Men — Dr. Dasouki |
| Q21–40 | The Old Man and the Sea — now dead | For Whom the Bell Tolls — Prof. Iman |
What follows from that: both halves are live. Steinbeck now has twenty real past-paper questions behind it, so it is no longer the half without a safety net — but it is the half you meet first, cold. Hemingway is still the most predictable material in your degree; just expect it at the end, in Prof. Iman's format (one long critical sentence broken into ten consecutive blanks, plus Donne-epigraph vocabulary). The only dead material is The Old Man and the Sea.
| The item | The key |
|---|---|
| “___ is speaking to ___” (same four pairs every time) | Usually Robert / himself |
| ___ suggests to imprison Pablo | Fernando |
| Primitivo suggests to imprison Pablo (T/F) | False |
| ___ suggests that they blind Pablo | Rafael |
| Robert Jordan sends Eladio to Golz (T/F) | False — it is Andrés |
| ___ is repugnant to Robert Jordan | Assassination |
| Robert Jordan is a communist (T/F) | False — he is an anti-fascist |
| “We should have killed all or none” is said by | Pablo |
| “If I could restore them to life” — “them” = | the fascists killed by Pablo |
| “To me there is a great difference between the bear and the man” | Anselmo |
| Lieutenant Berrendo is a(n) / is allied with | Fascist |
| “Go on, guerilla leader with the sad face” — “sad face” = | betrayal (said by Anselmo) |
Twelve items, all from the live half. On a 40-question paper that is close to a third of the Hemingway section before you think about anything else.
| Robert Jordan | American professor of Spanish, volunteer dynamiter, anti-fascist. “The Inglés”. The code hero. |
| Anselmo | “The old man”, 68. Guide. Thinks killing a sin; wants civic penance. Lonely. |
| Pablo | Guerrilla leader who was brave and is now a drunk and a traitor. Loves his horses. Steals the detonators. |
| Pilar | Pablo's woman, ~50, gypsy, masculine, reads palms, takes command. Code hero. |
| Maria | “Rabbit”. Raped and shaved by the fascists at Valladolid. Feminine, submissive, innocent. |
| El Sordo | “The deaf man”. Real name Santiago. Other band leader. Dies on the hilltop. Code hero. |
| Rafael | The gypsy. “Worthless, although his intentions are good.” Suggests blinding Pablo. |
| Agustin | Sentry. Foul-mouthed. “Que puta es la guerra — war is a bitchery.” |
| Fernando | Suggests imprisoning Pablo. |
| Andrés | The messenger to Golz. Arrives too late. |
| Golz | Russian general. Orders the bridge blown. Code hero. |
| Berrendo | Fascist lieutenant. Prays for the boy he shoots. Kills Jordan. |
| Kashkin | Dead before page one. Jordan's predecessor. Killed himself rather than be captured. |
| George Milton | Small, quick, intelligent. Conflict: responsibility vs freedom. Moral conscience of the novel. |
| Lennie Small | Huge, strong, mentally disabled. Flaw: lack of awareness. Natural strength without control. |
| Candy | Old swamper, one hand, $350. Fear of uselessness. His dog's death foreshadows Lennie's. |
| Crooks | The only black man. Crooked back. Doubly excluded. Educated. Dream: equality with whites. |
| Curley | Boss's son, ex-boxer, small and aggressive. Toxic masculinity, fragile ego. |
| Curley's wife | Never named. Hollywood dream. Eve — temptress, destroyer of Paradise. |
| Slim | Jerkline skinner, “prince of the ranch”. Ideal leadership. His word settles everything. |
| Carlson | Blunt, unfeeling. Shoots Candy's dog. Owner of the Luger that kills Lennie. |
| Aunt Clara | Lennie's dead guardian. Returns as his guilty conscience. |
| 3 days | Bell Tolls — about 70 hours, Sat to Tues |
| 4 days | Of Mice and Men — Thursday to Sunday |
| 6 | chapters in Of Mice and Men |
| 68 | Anselmo's age |
| $600 | the price of the farm |
| $350 | Candy's stake ($250 compensation + $100) |
| $50 | a month's wages |
| 10 acres | the farm's size |
| 1899–1961 | Hemingway |
| 1902–1968 | Steinbeck |
| 1940 / 1937 | Bell Tolls / Of Mice and Men published |
| 1954 / 1962 | Hemingway's Nobel / Steinbeck's Nobel |
| 1936–1939 | Spanish Civil War |
| 1929–1939 | the Great Depression |
| 1918 | Hemingway wounded, Italian front |
| dexterous | skilful |
| penance | atonement |
| reluctant | unwilling / renitent |
| diminish | reduce |
| valiant | very brave |
| discard | get rid of something |
| demolition | destruction |
| proletariat | working class |
| sell-out | betrayal (keyed “none” when only love/devotion offered) |
| muy flojo | very flaccid, weak |
| swamper | handyman who cleans the bunk house |
| skinner | mule driver |
| Epigraph | quotation at the front of a book, announcing its theme |
| Elegy | poem of mourning |
| Soliloquy | character alone, thoughts aloud, for the audience only |
| Monologue | long speech delivered TO others |
| Memento mori | a reminder of death — the bell |
| Character juxtaposition | comparing and contrasting two characters |
| Flashback | enlarges the time beyond the three days |
| Foreshadowing | Jordan's fate; Candy's dog |
| Scene shifting | cutting between Golz's HQ and the camp, to build suspense |
| Play-novelette | Steinbeck's own coinage — a novella with stage descriptions |
| Nihilism | nothing has any meaning or value |
| Anarchists | people who refuse to have any government |
| Naturalism | the world as a place where you must fight to survive |
| Existentialism | “existence precedes essence”; “man is condemned to be free” |
Code heroes: Jordan, Pilar, Anselmo, El Sordo — and among the minor characters, Golz. The antithesis: Massart. The failure: Pablo.
| For Whom the Bell Tolls | |
|---|---|
| Horses | the old chivalric world, nobility, the Republicans |
| Planes | modern mechanised death, the Fascists — shaped like sharks, moving like mechanized doom |
| The bridge | duty and sacrifice; “the Republic is the bridge” |
| The bell | memento mori; solidarity |
| Fox / wolf | cunning and treachery / loyalty and courage |
| Of Mice and Men | |
| Candy's dog | what happens to a worker who can no longer work |
| The rabbits | comfort of home, false hope, self-sufficiency |
| Mice | randomness of destiny; vulnerability despite innocence |
| Curley & his wife | evil; the misuse of migrants |
| Soledad | Spanish for solitude — the theme in the place-name |
| Where | The question | Printed | The problem |
|---|---|---|---|
| Second Term 2025, Q4 | Hemingway's writing in FWTBT is known for… | a. long, elaborate descriptions | Should be c. short, direct sentences and dialogues. The key contradicts the Nobel citation quoted in your own handout. The most clearly broken key in the bank. |
| Second Term 2025, Q21 | “They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even a(n) ___” | c. lover | The novella says enemy. The key reverses the passage. (Superseded material.) |
| Second Term 2025, Q13 | Nature damaged by war described using… | grid prints ? | Unkeyed by the examiner. Stem too loose to answer. |
| Second Term 2025, Q24 | Lions contrasted with sharks to show… | grid prints ? | Unkeyed. All four readings defensible. |
| 2025/2026, Q32 | “But soon he has to circle” refers to… | grid prints ? | Unkeyed — but the 2024/2025 paper asks the same question and keys escape. |
What to do about it. Three unkeyed cells across two papers means she does occasionally set a question she cannot answer herself. If an item genuinely reads as though it has two answers, choose fast and move on — you may be looking at one of these.
| Anselmo | anything about killing being a sin, penance, or God's absence |
| Pablo | self-justification, tactical sense, horses, “I am tired of all this” |
| Pilar | command, prophecy, contempt — “Here I command!” |
| Agustin | blunt profanity |
| Rafael | exaggeration, jokes, wild suggestions |
| Jordan | reflection, self-interrogation, English thinking |
| George | weary complaint that turns into the farm speech |
| Lennie | “I done a bad thing”; rabbits; “tell it like you done before” |
| Crooks | bitter dignity about being black and alone |
| Candy | fear of being thrown out; his dog |