View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In what county in Georgia was Janisse raised?
(a) Appling County.
(b) Fulton County.
(c) Mason County.
(d) Grasslands County.

2. What chore done before a thunderstorm does Janisse use in the Introduction as a metaphor for the Georgian people seeing everything coming before it happens?
(a) Rounding up the animals.
(b) Putting out the rain barrels.
(c) Bringing in the laundry.
(d) Raking the leaves.

3. What did Frank use to beat Janisse and her brothers after they stood by while a neighbor boy killed a snapping turtle?
(a) A belt.
(b) A ruler.
(c) A wooden paddle.
(d) A wooden spoon.

4. Why did the town of Brunswick have a distinctive smell?
(a) There was a paper mill in town that emitted the smell of rotten eggs.
(b) The river that flowed through town had been polluted by the nearby sewage treatment plant.
(c) The town's main street was lined with magnolia trees.
(d) There was frequent spreading of fertilizer on the crops to keep the soil fertile.

5. What does the term bricoleur mean?
(a) A term given to folk recyclers, those who find purposes for castaway objects in which others cannot see a value.
(b) A term given to someone who cannot see a situation from another's perspective.
(c) A term given to a manipulative person.
(d) A term given to a bread-maker who uses only natural ingredients.

Short Answer Questions

1. When tree farming became common practice in 1940, why was the longleaf pine rarely planted by tree farmers?

2. Because Janisse was one of her grandfather Charlie's favorite grandchildren, what two skills did he teach her?

3. For what reason did Frank throw out the family's television set when Janisse's little sister Kay was a baby?

4. Janisse references a line of literature that may be the original source of the term 'Cracker': Who wrote the line, "What cracker is this same that deafes our eares with this abundance of superfluous breath?"

5. On the outskirts of what town is the junkyard where Janisse spent her childhood?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why were the conditions so favorable for Frank's junkyard business to make money?

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

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

4. What reasons does Janisse give for God disliking pine plantations?

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

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

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

8. 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?

9. After explaining that "Ninety-eight percent of the presettlement longleaf pine barrents in the southeastern coastal plains were lost by 1986" (16), Janisse writes that she did not know about this loss as a child. However, she states, "But it is a loss that as an adult shadows every step I take" (16). What does she mean?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,556 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample