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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 constituted Janisse's and her brothers' very favorite game within the junkyard?
(a) Making believe they were car salespeople.
(b) Playing church.
(c) Pretending to be paramedics saving car accident victims.
(d) Chasing each other along the tops of salvaged cars.

2. What expensive item did Frank buy for the household in order to foster his childrens' interest in knowledge and learning?
(a) A set of encyclopedias.
(b) A marble globe.
(c) A gold-encased compass.
(d) A microscope kit.

3. What event did Frank attend on the day he had his first major nervous breakdown during Janisse's childhood?
(a) A gun show.
(b) A boat show.
(c) A car show.
(d) A gem and rock show.

4. In Chapter 3, Janisse describes her family's junkyard as ten acres of failed what?
(a) Memories.
(b) Machines.
(c) Plans.
(d) Goals.

5. Of the 156 million acres that used to constitute the longleaf pine's southeastern range, how many of those acres were once covered by longleaf pines?
(a) 65 million.
(b) 35 million.
(c) 85 million.
(d) 105 million.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the children call their club whose purpose was to search the salvaged cars for valuable items?

2. What is one place that Janisse's parents do NOT list as a place where one of their children was found?

3. What did Frank's children begin to watch for as a sign that he was entering a manic phase of his mental illness?

4. Though everyone was aware of Frank's predilection toward mental illness, what did everyone, including the police, agree was another possible cause of his first major nervous breakdown?

5. What city is NOT one of the bigger cities closest to Janisse's hometown?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do people call certain parts of the wood of the longleaf pine "fat-lightered"?

2. What elements did Frank consider crucial to the business of buying?

3. How does the Thingfinders Club play into the memoir's message regarding ecology?

4. When Janisse wrote that her father Frank was a "mechanic in the word's truest sense," what did she mean?

5. What are some ways in which Janisse shows her parents that she is a tomboy who likes to be outside in nature more than she enjoys any other activities?

6. On page 79, Janisse includes the text of a letter her father Frank wrote to her. In the letter, Frank wrote that he was thankful for his mental illness and that it had taught him seven lessons. What were three of those lessons he said mental illness had taught him?

7. What is the effect on the reader when in the chapter entitled Junkyard, Janisse writes, "I was six the year mental illness stole my father," (77) and how does the author create that effect?

8. The second sentence of the chapter entitled Timber says, "About the same time, the production of naval stores in North Carolina began to wane and big turpentine producers in North Carolina sashayed into Georgia" 99). What is the effect of the author's choice of the verb "sashayed" and what is her purpose in making that choice?

9. Due to their parents' religious beliefs and their resulting family rules, what were some of the practices forbidden to Janisse and her siblings?

10. Besides the fact that he thought it had better prices than other stores, why did Frank shop at Winn-Dixie?

(see the answer keys)

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