View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Leif dream of first while he dozes and his soup cooks in "Whale Song"?

2. What shape do the rocky shore and the steep walls make in "Hunger"?

3. How many times do Leif and Little Carl stop on the first day after they leave the fish camp?

4. In "Whale Song," what does Leif at first think jays are complaining about when he wakes?

5. In "Whale Song" as Leif leaves the island, what feeling does he fight?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does hunger affect Leif when he wakes in "Whale Song"?

2. In "Wind Music," how does Leif chase away depressive thoughts?

3. In "Whale Song," what encounter does Leif have with a bear?

4. How does Leif clean up the canoe?

5. What happens to Leif when he is orphaned?

6. How does Leif get Little Carl's body out of the canoe?

7. What is the canoe like that Leif is in and how was it made?

8. Who is Little Carl?

9. How is Leif led to the island where he decides to bury Little Carl?

10. When Leif becomes old enough to walk, what does he become?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Leif deliberately attempts to keep his mind from dwelling on negatives. How and why does Leif try to keep his mind from dwelling on negatives? Why is it important for him to focus on positive things?

Essay Topic 2

Leif catches cholera. How does Leif recover? How do purpose and a plan give him strength as he recovers?

Essay Topic 3

Leif buries Little Carl and builds a cairn over the body. What do the burial rituals Leif follows reveal about how Leif perceives death and about Norse burial rituals?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 898 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample