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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. In the opening of the story, who dies in April?
(a) John Hawthorne.
(b) Daniel Hawthorne.
(c) Dale Hawthorne.
(d) David Hawthorne.

2. Where does Jack feel a sense of belonging when he is working?
(a) In the kitchen with his mother and sister.
(b) In the barn with the cows.
(c) In the fields with his uncles
(d) On the tractor with his father.

3. While riding on the tractor, what things does Jack say about himself to himself?
(a) He should never have been driving the tractor in the first place.
(b) He is almost a teeneager and has his whole life ahead of him.
(c) He is spiritually defective and evil.
(d) He is guilty but feels better each day.

4. What does Jack use to push the manure in the barn into the gutters?
(a) A long handled shovel.
(b) A blunt wooden scraper.
(c) A push broom.
(d) A metal trowel.

5. For what does Jack's father often abandon his wife and children?
(a) Camping in the Rockies.
(b) Drinking binges.
(c) Love affairs with other women.
(d) Trips to the city to gamble.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Jack's father perform?

2. What does Jack notice about his sister as she is laying out the food?

3. What month is it when Jack sits under the tree with Phoebe and has lunch?

4. What does Jack find off of the cow path?

5. How old is the youngest child at the time of the accident?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Dale looks up to the door and sees Jack, what does Dale say to his son? How does Jack respond to his father?

2. Where is Arcady Yegudkin from? How does he get to America? What is his story?

3. How does Jack react every time he relives the image of his brother David being crushed by the cultipacker?

4. When Jack leaves his lesson with Yegudkin, where does he go?

5. Who is involved in the accident and how old are they? Why is the accident seem particularly difficult for the two surviving children?

6. What is Jack's first reaction when he sees his father and what is occurring in the living room? Why can he not act on his impulse to run?

7. How does Jack feel after asking Yegudkin if he will ever play the horn as well as the teacher? How does Yegudkin respond?

8. When Jack first opens the door and sees his family gathered around his father, his aunt says to him, "It's all over. Your father is home." What does she mean by this?

9. When Dale Hawthorne returns home after his three week absence, he does not leave again. What does he do to occupy his time? What does he do when he becomes restless?

10. Later in the evening following their lunch, Jack comes to understand about why Phoebe is alarmed about his not saying grace before eating. What does he realize grace means to Phoebe?

(see the answer keys)

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