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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 sound does Jack remember from the accident?
(a) The crack of his brother's skull.
(b) The sound of heavy equipment.
(c) The thunder following the lightening strike.
(d) His sister's scream.

2. How does Jack come to feel about his raging on the tractor?
(a) Proud.
(b) Happy that he is so much like his father.
(c) Hopeful of becoming an actor.
(d) Ashamed.

3. What is Jack's mother's support system after the accident?
(a) Her many close, religious friends who visit often and care for her.
(b) Reading and writing poetry.
(c) Eating and watching television alone.
(d) She does not have one.

4. In Dale's story, whose skull is Lord Byron trying to make into a drinking cup?
(a) Shelley's.
(b) Shakespeare's.
(c) King Richard's
(d) Einstein's.

5. What is Phoebe's attitude as she carries the basket filled with lunch up to the field hands?
(a) She sees nothing unreasonable about lugging the basket up the hill.
(b) She is obviously frustrated and does not want to walk up the hill.
(c) She is annoyed by the insects flying in her face.
(d) She is delighted and runs up the hill.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Jack stops for lunch after driving the tractor in the fields all morning, where does he sit?

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

3. For what is Dale Hawthorne well-known in his town?

4. What kind of motorcycle does Jack's father have?

5. Where does Jack feel a sense of belonging when he is working?

Short Essay Questions

1. The narrator provides only two comments about the dead child, David. What are the comments? Do they tell us anything about the child?

2. How does the narrator describe Jack's lessons with Yegudkin?

3. Where does Jack find peace and solace? With whom does he talk?

4. 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?

5. Dale Hawthorne decides against suicide. Why does he do so? What does he do instead of killing himself?

6. What does Jack ask Yegudkin after he plays, and how does the teacher respond?

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. How does the story open? How does the first sentence compel the reader to read the next?

9. Jack has a nightly routine upon entering the house. What is that routine? What seems different to him on this evening?

10. The author provides a vivid, detailed picture of Yegudkin, a much more detailed one than of any other character. What does Arcady Yegudkin look like?

(see the answer keys)

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