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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. What does Jack do while riding on the tractor?
(a) He dreams of better times with his family.
(b) He worries about his mother.
(c) He plans his escape from his family.
(d) He replays the accident scene again and again.

2. Who is working and helping to harvest the fields with Jack?
(a) Neighbors and cousins.
(b) Friends and uncles.
(c) Phoebe and her friends.
(d) His mother and grandfather.

3. What does Jack do while waiting for the cows to finish eating?
(a) He screams at the cows to hurry.
(b) He listens to them chew.
(c) He cries in the hay.
(d) He takes a nap.

4. What is in the basket Phoebe brings to Jack?
(a) Tuna, bread and cookies.
(b) Chicken, rolls, celery and salt.
(c) Chicken, biscuits, carrots and ranch dip.
(d) Ham sandwiches and fresh fruit.

5. What kind of motorcycle does Jack's father have?
(a) Honda.
(b) Vespa.
(c) Harley-Davidson 80.
(d) Kawasaki.

Short Answer Questions

1. What have his co-workers accepted about Jack when he stops working for lunch?

2. What sound does Jack remember from the accident?

3. What recitation of his father's does Jack recall as he suffers his anger and grief?

4. What is one habit Jack's father takes up after the accident?

5. What is the kitchen like in Jack's house?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jack Hawthorne spend much of his time after the accidental death of his brother? What does he do during those activities?

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

3. What does Jack think about as he prepares the cows for milking after realizing why Phoebe wanted him to say grace? How does he feel as these thoughts enter his mind?

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

5. How does Jack react when his father reads Jack's poems in public? Why does he feel the way he does about his father's poetry readings?

6. Jack is "touched" by his sister's presence at lunchtime in the field. Why is this? What does he notice about her?

7. 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?

8. Describe the Hawthorne family farm that Jack works on a year and a half later. What has changed? What remains the same?

9. Jack and Phoebe have an interchange about saying grace over lunch. What is that interchange, and why is important to the story?

10. How do Jack's family and his mother's friends view his passionate interest in his horn? Are they concerned? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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