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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 was the subject of Janisse's recurring daydream she had during church services?
(a) Being a bank robber.
(b) Having a very tiny real baby of her own.
(c) Running off to join the circus.
(d) Living in the forest as a hermit.

2. For how many years does Janisse say her family had been in Appling County, Georgia?
(a) 86 years.
(b) 150 years.
(c) 180 years.
(d) 210 years.

3. What game of pretend did Janisse and her brothers play inside the old school bus?
(a) Zoo.
(b) Baptism.
(c) Runaway school bus.
(d) Chain gang.

4. What does Dell, Janisse's brother, claim to have seen men stealing from the junkyard in the middle of the night?
(a) Windows.
(b) Radiators.
(c) Copper wire.
(d) Engines.

5. At the hands of the tree farmers, the land was laid bare. What simile does Janisse use to describe its bare state?
(a) Bare as a sand dune.
(b) Bare as a possum's tail.
(c) Bare as a blank sheet of paper.
(d) Bare as a vulture's pate.

Short Answer Questions

1. By what year had virtually all of the longleaf pines been felled, leaving only .001 percent of its former numbers?

2. Pun's oft-given piece of advice to his son was, "Don't take more on your heart than you can shake off your heels." How does Janisse feel about this lesson?

3. When Janisse relates that the children did not believe their birth stories, what does she say would have been a more believable story for their parents to have told about her own birth?

4. When Janisse tells her father repeatedly that she does not like her piano lessons, what does she say she would rather be doing?

5. Why did the town of Brunswick have a distinctive smell?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. Janisse said there was only one type of occasion that did not elicit shame from her role as a junkyard owner's daughter. What is the only thing that occurs that does not bring her shame?

5. How is foreshadowing used within Janisse's relation of how she used to love to play teacher with her brothers or even with her dolls?

6. Why did Janisse look forward so much to the days when Frank shopped at Winn-Dixie?

7. What example of making something out of nothing does Janisse write about when showing her father Frank's ingenuity in the chapter entitled, "Native Genius"?

8. How does Janisse describe her feelings toward her father when he was mentally unwell?

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

10. How does Janisse Ray use her great-grandfather Pun's career progression to show how white-collar jobs can be even more damaging to the environment than can blue-collar jobs?

(see the answer keys)

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