View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. On page 29, the setting sun causes something to light up and glow "like a crown of glory." This is an example of what literary technique?
(a) Metaphor.
(b) Understatement.
(c) Simile.
(d) Alliteration.

2. Which nation controls New York at the time when Rip and the village are introduced to the reader?
(a) Holland.
(b) Great Britain.
(c) Sweden.
(d) The United States.

3. Who is "Dame" Van Winkle?
(a) Rip's sister.
(b) Rip's daughter.
(c) Rip's mother.
(d) Rip's wife.

4. When on page 31, the narrator says of Rip that he will "eat white bread or brown," how is Rip being characterized?
(a) He only likes two kinds of bread.
(b) He is unaware of what he is eating.
(c) He overeats.
(d) He is easy to please.

5. How does Rip's wife treat his dog?
(a) She ignores the dog completely.
(b) She insists that the dog stay outside and earn its keep on the farm.
(c) She treats the dog better than anyone else in the family.
(d) She treats the dog the same way she treats Rip.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Rip's dog's name?

2. What is true of Rip's children in the beginning of the story?

3. In the frame narrative, the reader is told that the main story's narrator gets his information from the wives of the "burghers" (28). Whose wives are these?

4. Who is Peter Stuyvesant?

5. What is Diedrich Knickerbocker's profession?

Short Essay Questions

1. What relationship does Rip have with the village children, and how does it characterize him?

2. Explain the relationship of Washington Irving, Diedrich Knickerbocker, and Geoffrey Crayon.

3. What do Rip and his friends do when they gather together outside the village inn, and how does this characterize Rip?

4. Describe the contents of the story's epigraph and tell how this relates to the frame narrative.

5. Explain what the frame narrative says about the historian who recorded Rip's story--where does his work come from, and how reliable is it?

6. Describe how Rip's relationship with the dog contrasts with his wife's relationship with the dog.

7. Describe the condition of Rip's home and farm.

8. Describe the relationship between Rip and his wife.

9. Describe the condition of Rip's children.

10. How is the setting of the Catskills described?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 839 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample