View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Sarny enjoy doing every evening after the slaves eat?
(a) Playing a harmonica that she found in town.
(b) Drawing pictures in the sand in the chicken shed.
(c) Singing songs that she learned in church.
(d) Laying in bed thinking about what she's learned.

2. What substance does Sarny treat the flowers with in Chapter 2?
(a) Turpentine.
(b) Bubblegum.
(c) Chemical pesticide.
(d) Tobacco juice.

3. What term refers to efforts toward procuring economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchised group?
(a) Emancipation.
(b) Suffragism.
(c) Abolition.
(d) Eclecticism.

4. Why does mammy say Sarny's birth mother was sold in Chapter 1?
(a) She was a good cotton-picker.
(b) She was a good midwife.
(c) She was a good house maid.
(d) She was a good breeder.

5. What does the author assert about the events in the story at the opening of the novel?
(a) The events in the story are loosely based on events that occurred in Cleveland, Mississippi, in 1861.
(b) The events in the story are satirical.
(c) The events are true except for variation in time and character identification.
(d) The events in the story are purely from the imagination of the author and not based on any historical people.

6. What is Sarny doing when the master arrives with John in Chapter 3?
(a) Watering the flower garden.
(b) Changing the babies' diapers.
(c) Feeding the chickens.
(d) Cleaning the eating trough.

7. What is foreshadowed by Sarny's story about finding the coin in the dirt in Chapter 2?
(a) Sarny's marriage.
(b) Sarny's eventual wealth.
(c) Sarny's death.
(d) Sarny's education.

8. From what device do Sarny and the other slaves eat their meals at the plantation?
(a) From a cauldron.
(b) From a long table.
(c) From a trough.
(d) From a grill.

9. By current estimates, approximately how many Africans were shipped across the Atlantic during the slave trade?
(a) 20 million.
(b) 12 million.
(c) 7 million.
(d) 5 million.

10. How is John attired when he first arrives at the plantation in Chapter 3?
(a) He is wearing a cape.
(b) He is wearing a night gown.
(c) He is nude.
(d) He is wearing canvas pants.

11. What does Sarny say her last name is in Chapter 1?
(a) Waller.
(b) Smith.
(c) Freeman.
(d) Thomas.

12. What does Sarny say they pour down the trough in the mornings for the slaves in Chapter 3?
(a) Coffee.
(b) Buttermilk.
(c) Oatmeal.
(d) Tea.

13. What has caused some of the leaves to fall off of the flowers that Sarny is tending in the flower garden in Chapter 2?
(a) Chemical pesticides.
(b) Little green bugs.
(c) Over-watering.
(d) Under-watering.

14. Where does Sarny demonstrate the "letters" that she discovered on the feed sack for John in Chapter 3?
(a) She etches it into the wooden door.
(b) She scratches it into the dirt floor.
(c) She writes it with a pen and paper.
(d) She scratches it into the tree.

15. What substance does Sarny equate the color of her skin with in Chapter 3?
(a) Sassafras tea.
(b) Molasses.
(c) Brown sugar.
(d) Coffee.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 1, Sarny says that some believed she brought Nightjohn to the plantation by what manner?

2. How would you describe the treatment of the slaves on Waller's plantation?

3. Where are the flower beds described that Sarny tends from time to time in Chapter 1?

4. What had Mammy done when Sarny copied the letters from the feed sack in the dirt when she was younger?

5. What kind of flowers is Sarny working on in the flower bed in the beginning of Chapter 2?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 605 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample