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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The narrator begins the novel by declaring that "the Herdmans were absolutely the" what "kids in the history of the world" (1)?
(a) Dumbest.
(b) Poorest.
(c) Worst.
(d) Yuckiest.

2. As the injured former pageant coordinator emerges from her home, what is NOT a command she calls out?
(a) She tells them to turn off her stove.
(b) She tells them to call her husband.
(c) She tells them to inform the Ladies' Aid Bazaar committee that she will miss the meeting.
(d) She tells them to turn off her clothes iron.

3. How often are the children required to visit the health room to get weighed and measured?
(a) Once a season.
(b) Twice a year.
(c) Once a year.
(d) Once a month.

4. What symptom does Imogene tell the school nurse her brother Ollie has been displaying?
(a) Flaky skin all over his body.
(b) Blindness.
(c) Black bruises all over his body.
(d) Red spots all over his body.

5. When Imogene tells Albert that she has seen the nurse's note about him, how does she say he will be spending the following summer?
(a) Spending the summer making up work in summer school.
(b) Spending the summer in physical therapy for scoliosis.
(c) Spending the summer at aikido camp.
(d) Spending the summer at fat camp.

Short Answer Questions

1. The narrator describes the former pageant coordinator as doing everything at church except what activity?

2. What happens to the usual coordinator of the pageant that then requires a new coordinator?

3. What is the name of the school nurse?

4. The congregation of the narrator's church has a food drive every year for what cause?

5. In what type of container does Claude bring the Herdmans' cat to school?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the one virtue displayed by the Herdman children within the burned toolhouse incident?

2. What simile does the narrator use to describe the way in which the Herdman children move through Woodrow Wilson School?

3. In what ways does the author employ hyperbole within Chapter One?

4. What evidence does the narrator provide for her conclusion that it is Charlie's fault that the Herdmans get involved in the Christmas pageant?

5. For what purpose does the author go out of her way to portray the Herdman children as unteachable?

6. For what purpose does the author use the allusion to "a day of rest" (21) in Chapter Two?

7. Describe one particular instance of the author's use of humor and examine its effect on the reader.

8. Discuss the author's use of vivid imagery within the scene of the Herdmans' first time at Sunday school.

9. What happens to create several open jobs within the church during the holiday season and which jobs become vacant?

10. What is the narrator's evidence for her claim that the "Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the the history of the world" (1)?

(see the answer keys)

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