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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ichabod feast his eyes on first when he arrives at the Van Tassel's home?

2. What is Ichabod's focus from the moment he visits the Van Tassel's home?

3. What does the villagers call Van Brunt?

4. Whose mouth "...watered as he looed upon this sumptous promise of luxurious winter fare?"

5. Several stories speak of sightings and abduction of whom?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of Ichabod's voracious appetite throughout the story?

2. Why is it important that the reader knows the action part of the tale takes place thirty years previous to the time of the telling of the story?

3. What is the purpose of the poem?

4. How does the telling of the ghost stories set up the mood for the story's climax?

5. How does the storyteller use similes to describe the school and Ichabod's students?

6. What is one characterization of Ichabod?

7. Why does Ichabod endear himself to the village's mothers?

8. What does Ichabod's clothing blowing loosely around him symbolize?

9. How do the descendants of Sleepy Hollow play into the story's atmosphere and mood?

10. The narrator compares Ichabod to an anaconda which is able to ingest huge quantities without permanently altering its shape. Why else is Ichabod like a snake?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Interpret the meaning of The Headless Horseman's race with Ichabod Crane after the Van Tassel's party. What does this event in the story mean? What purpose does the author hope to serve by presenting the Headless Horseman character in this manner?

Essay Topic 2

What is the importance of Ichabod's clothing blowing around him? Why is this an important detail about his character? Find descriptions from the text to support your answer and to provide evidence of your opinion.

Essay Topic 3

Explain how the introduction of the story, the papers being found in those left by a dead man, gives credibility to the story. Does having an actual source support the author's suggested tone that what is revealed is fact. Why or why not? Does it help the author's purpose because the man is dead and no longer around to dispute the claims laid out in the rest of the story?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 674 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample