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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. What does Brother say causes him to run home during the storm?
(a) Disappointment.
(b) Cruelty.
(c) Shame.
(d) Fear.

2. What area is the ibis native to?
(a) Canada and the American North.
(b) The American South.
(c) Africa.
(d) South America to Florida

3. When Brother says that "the flood of childish spite evanesced" (11), what is he saying happened?
(a) His pride was like a flood of water.
(b) He could see through the trees to where Doodle lay on the ground.
(c) The storm started to break.
(d) His anger went away.

4. Who is the only person who does not like the name "Doodle"?
(a) The doctor.
(b) Aunt Nicey.
(c) Doodle.
(d) Mama.

5. What do the "strange names" (8) talked about at the family dinner party allude to?
(a) They are the names of family members buried in the family graveyard.
(b) They are the places that the family plans to travel in Europe.
(c) They are the neighbor families who have lost children in World War I.
(d) They are the locations of World War I battles.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Brother respond to Doodle's love for natural beauty?

2. Why does Brother cry when everyone hugs him for teaching Doodle to walk?

3. What is "Doodle" short for?

4. Why, at the end of summer, does Brother start to push Doodle so hard in his "training" efforts?

5. Why does Brother treat Doodle roughly when he first starts taking him outside in his cart?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Doodle and "Brother" do with the flowers at Old Woman Swamp?

2. When Doodle learns to walk, where does the family put his cart, and why is this symbolically appropriate?

3. When Mama tells "Brother" that Doodle might be mentally disabled, what does "Brother" plan to do, and what changes his mind?

4. What "training" plan does "Brother" come up with for Doodle, and what is his motive?

5. How does "Brother" go about teaching Doodle to walk?

6. When they are eating lunch on the day the ibis appears, what argument are the brothers having?

7. In what ways is the summer of 1918 hard on the family's crops?

8. When the boys are almost ready to show the family that Doodle can walk and they keep hinting that they have a big secret, what does Nicey tell them and what is its thematic significance?

9. When "Brother" dances around with Aunt Nicey to celebrate Doodle walking, what happens, and why it is it ironic?

10. What images of death does the story open with?

(see the answer keys)

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