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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does the narrator admire Pere Rasles?
(a) He provided useful information to the English.
(b) He mapped the area where the Abnaki lived.
(c) He lived with the Abnaki Indians for 34 years.
(d) He converted many Puritans to Catholicism.

2. How can Boone's attitude toward Indians best be described?
(a) Contemptuous.
(b) Competitive.
(c) Admiring.
(d) Paternalistic.

3. What moral weakness does the narrator comment on in Washington?
(a) His fondness for women.
(b) His refusal to free his slaves.
(c) His laziness.
(d) His tendency to drink too much.

4. Who raises Sam Houston during the early years of his life?
(a) The Cherokee.
(b) The Tuscaloosa.
(c) The Winnebago.
(d) The Abnaki.

5. What characteristic does Boone have to have in order to live the kind of life that he lived?
(a) Drive to develop land for investment purposes.
(b) An appreciation for solitude.
(c) Lack of concern for his own safety.
(d) Desire to earn money.

6. Who is the narrator for the second half of "Poor Richard"?
(a) William Carlos Williams.
(b) Benjamin Franklin.
(c) An average American.
(d) An American Indian.

7. What does the narrator's interlocutor, Valyry Larbaud, admire about the Puritans?
(a) Their intellectual ability.
(b) Their resourcefulness.
(c) Their firm vigor.
(d) Their tolerance of other religions.

8. What event has distracted historians from telling the whole story about Burr?
(a) The duel with Alexander Hamilton.
(b) Shea's rebellion.
(c) The American Revolution.
(d) The French and Indian War.

9. How does Jones feel about the battle?
(a) He says that it is beautiful.
(b) He says that it is horrifying.
(c) He says that it is necessary.
(d) He says that it is exciting.

10. What does the "Poor Richard" narrator say is a common misconception that Europeans have about America?
(a) They can move there and quickly be elected to political office.
(b) Americans place a high value on leisure time and do not like to work.
(c) It is a dangerous place because there are so many Indian raids.
(d) It is very hard to earn a living by farming in America.

11. What quality does Williams admire in the woman who lives in the "ramshackle castle" by the railroad tracks?
(a) Her musical ability.
(b) Her courage.
(c) Her creativity.
(d) Her religious devotion.

12. What feature does Williams say most shapes Edgar Allen Poe's work?
(a) His religion.
(b) His education.
(c) His ancestry.
(d) His locality.

13. What does Poe call Longfellow?
(a) A plagiarist.
(b) An ignoramus.
(c) A thief.
(d) A shyster.

14. Who is the only person in America who can live a life of leisure, like a gentleman, according to an early American saying that Franklin mentions?
(a) A housewife.
(b) A hog.
(c) The President.
(d) A child.

15. What do Burr's critics say about him when he runs for office?
(a) He is frivolous and immoral.
(b) He is corrupt and would misuse power.
(c) He does not have enough experience or education.
(d) He is secretly a Royalist.

Short Answer Questions

1. What reason does the narrator give for believing that Americans have trouble understanding their own national character?

2. Which of the following adjectives best describes the narrator's experience of Paris?

3. What event in Poe's life trapped him in his poetry?

4. What makes Daniel Boone different from other settlers, according to the narrator?

5. How does Poe respond to Lowell's criticism of him in verse?

(see the answer keys)

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