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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. Why can't Karana go out of home during the winter?
(a) She is too depressed to go out after Rontu's death.
(b) It is a winter of strong winds, rain, and wild seas.
(c) She is afraid to venture outside without Rontu.
(d) The wild dogs keep trying to attack her when she leaves the house.

2. Where did the large dog leader of the pack come from?
(a) The Aleut ship
(b) A small ravine
(c) Floated in on the surf one day after a storm
(d) The far side of the Island of the Blue Dolphins

3. After fishing, as Karana climbs the cliff what does she hear?
(a) Dogs fighting
(b) Thousands of gulls passing overhead
(c) Nothing, an eerie complete silence
(d) The Aleuts down on the beach

4. Why does Karana deny living in the cave when the Aleut girl asks her?
(a) Karana fears for her life.
(b) Karana doesn't want the girl visiting.
(c) Karana does not trust the girl.
(d) Karana doesn't like the girl.

5. How do sea otters teach their babies to swim?
(a) The mother lets them hold onto her flippers until they learn to swim.
(b) The mother pushes them into the sea, hoping they will swim.
(c) The mother brushes the babies away with her flippers, swimming around them until the babies follow.
(d) The mother carries them into the water and swims back to shore.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is one of the birds named Tainor?

2. How is Karana able to keep the two birds close by as friends?

3. As Karana looks down at the empty harbor, what is she thinking?

4. What does Rontu do when Karana asks him to bark at the sea gulls?

5. Which one of the Aleuts is Karana afraid will find her?

Short Essay Questions

1. Summarize the method Karana uses to tame the two young birds, nesting in a tree above her house.

2. What does Karana discover in Black Cave on the southern coast of the island that frightens her?

3. Compare Rontu with his son, Rontu-Aru.

4. Karana survives the tidal waves and returns to the headland. What happens when Rontu-Aru greets her?

5. Other than training the birds, how does Karana pass the time throughout the spring?

6. What does Karana see while she is out looking for supplies to fix her canoe, and what is her reaction?

7. What does Karana do after the Aleut girl finds her and Rontu at the cave?

8. What does Karana do with the young, wounded otter she finds after the Aleutian ship departs?

9. How does Karana feel now that Tutok has gone away?

10. How do the gulls open the scallops shells to eat the meat inside?

(see the answer keys)

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