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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the first food Ma cooked in the new fireplace?

2. With what does Ma stuff the bedstead mattress?

3. What does Laura tell her Ma Laura would like to see now that they are in Indian territory?

4. Where does the Ingalls family live at the opening of the book?

5. What method does Pa use to build the fireplace?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Pa have problems when he feeds Pet and Patty and how is the problem resolved?

2. How does the family get across the creek and who does not make it?

3. Why does the family stop after traveling for a few hours?

4. What does Laura tell her Pa about Jack and the Indians and what is his response?

5. How does Pa acquire mustangs and what are the mustangs’ names?

6. Why does Charles Ingalls want to move west?

7. What does Laura tell her Ma she wants to see relating to Indians and what does Laura’s Ma tell her?

8. Where do the Ingalls stop for supplies and where do they spend the first night on the road? What do they hear that first night?

9. What does the family do after Pa and Mr. Edwards finish the house, except for the roof?

10. What does Pa do every morning when digging the well with Mr. Scott and what happens to Mr. Scott in the well one morning?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Define plot and include the definitions of the most important elements of a plot. Do all novels have a plot? Why or why not? Write a brief synopsis of the plot of Little House on the Prairie, identifying where the various elements of the plot occur (Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution or denouement). Do you find it difficult to identify the plot? Why or why not? What about the various elements of the plot? Give a brief synopsis of any important sub-plots.

Essay Topic 2

Do you think most people want a happy ending in a novel? Do you think Little House on the Prairie would qualify as a novel with a happy ending? Why or why not? What do you think are three reasons to read fiction and do you think Little House on the Prairie fulfills these three reasons? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Choose two significant symbols and trace and analyze their appearance in Little House on the Prairie. Are these universal symbols that would have the same meaning in any culture? What other symbols could portray the same idea? Why do you think Wilder chooses the symbols she does? Consider symbols such as the animals on the prairie, the Indians, the prairie fire and the panther.

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