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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 are the two crops that Matt has evidently planted near his cabin?

2. What is the name of the town where Matt's family lives?

3. What does Saknis bring Matt to wear?

4. According to the stranger, what life experiences does this man have?

5. What does Matt still have a few grains of in a tin after the break in?

Short Essay Questions

1. Some might say that by heeding his father's advice Matt makes a mistake. How might one blame Matt's father for Matt being duped?

2. The first relationship the reader witnesses is the one between Matt and his father. Describe their relationship.

3. After fishing and managing to catch four fish, how is Matt's good mood quickly ruined?

4. How is Matt's experience of learning how to make a bow different from the other hunting lessons of Attean so far in the story?

5. How dies Matt discover that he can overcome his loneliness?

6. Why does Matt blame himself for the bear's intrusion into his cabin?

7. Compare or contrast Attean and Matt as students.

8. How does Matt's remark about shooting squirrels remind the reader that Matt is still a child?

9. Explain why the reader senses that Matt's rescuer is kind and that Matt is safe.

10. How does Matt's garden experience prove to be frustrating?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss whether the conflict of man against man or man against nature is the framework for the basic conflict in The Sign of the Beaver.

Essay Topic 2

At the beginning of The Sign of the Beaver, Matt is a child in his father's care. Although he has learned the lessons his father and his parents have taught him, discuss the immature side of Matt and give examples of his behaviors or early relations with people that suggest that he is still a child.

Essay Topic 3

In the beginning of The Sign of the Beaver when Attean and Matt first meet, they are boys who are the same age and of very different cultures. In terms of their early relationship, that is until Attean becomes a man, compare and contrast these two young men.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 790 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample