1. Why does Maggie leap to Tom's defense while Mr. Tulliver discusses Tom's education with Mr. Riley?
(a) Mr. Tulliver says that Tom is never likely to become much of a scholar.
(b) Mr. Tulliver says that he does not mean for Tom to be a miller and a farmer.
(c) Mr. Tulliver says that if Tom is a miller, he turns Mr. Tulliver out of his own mill.
(d) Mr. Tulliver says that he has something on his mind regarding Tom.

2. Why do you think that George Eliot chooses to begin a new book, Book II, with the chapter in which Tom first goes away to school?
(a) She has not written about Tom previously in the book.
(b) Tom has a birthday.
(c) It relates to a different setting and a different topic than Book I.
(d) Book I is getting long, so it is time to switch books.

3. What does the narrator think about the system of sending boys to study with independent schoolmasters, such as Mr. Stelling?
(a) She feels that girls should also go to school with independent schoolmasters.
(b) She thinks that it leaves a boy's education up to pure luck.
(c) She thinks it is wrong for boys to leave their homes to go to school.
(d) She approves of the individual attention that boys get from these teachers.

4. Why does Maggie dunk her head in a tub of water?
(a) She spills something on her hair.
(b) She is too hot and wants to cool off.
(c) She does not want her mother to try to curl it.
(d) She is trying to make her mother think that she takes a bath.

5. While Mr. Tulliver is talking to Mr. Riley about Tom, what does he confide in Mr. Riley about Maggie?
(a) He fears that Maggie is sorry to see Tom go away to school.
(b) He fears that Maggie never wants to leave home because she is so close to her parents.
(c) He fears that Maggie's cleverness leads to trouble when she grows up and becomes a woman.
(d) He fears that Maggie is popular with the boys when she is older.