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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. On what day of the week does Delia collect and deliver clothes using her pony and buckboard?
(a) Wednesday.
(b) Saturday.
(c) Monday.
(d) Sunday.

2. What does Delia tell Sykes will one day kill her?
(a) The physical labor of her job.
(b) Sykes' physical abuse.
(c) Sykes' foolishness.
(d) The heat of midsummer.

3. When Sykes declares how tired he is of Delia and leaves the house, what does he do on his way out?
(a) Kicks the fence.
(b) Slams the back gate.
(c) Bangs on the mailbox.
(d) Slams the front door.

4. What does Delia mean when she says that she will stay in the house until she is "toted out foot foremost"? (2)
(a) Until the house burns down.
(b) Until she dies.
(c) Until she is arrested.
(d) Until she sells the house.

5. What type of material makes up the mattress of the bed in Delia's home?
(a) Buckwheat.
(b) Hay.
(c) Feathers.
(d) Sawdust.

6. Where does Delia say Sykes would disappear to with all of his wages during the first year of their marriage?
(a) Myrtle Beach.
(b) Tampa.
(c) Sarasota.
(d) Orlando.

7. When Delia tells Sykes she is not in the mood for a fight because she has just come from a particular place, what is that place?
(a) Church.
(b) City Hall.
(c) Bertha's house.
(d) The corner store.

8. What does Delia say she does for her pony that makes him belong to her?
(a) She fills his water trough.
(b) She feeds him.
(c) She brushes him.
(d) She shoes him.

9. What simile does Walter use to describe how pretty Delia had been as a young woman?
(a) A two-dollar ribbon.
(b) A peacock.
(c) A striped kitten.
(d) A speckled pup.

10. What does Delia say she had brought to her marriage to Sykes?
(a) Commitment.
(b) Love.
(c) Faith.
(d) Optimism.

11. What does the narrator say that the men on Joe's porch usually would do with the cane-knots if it were not so stiflingly hot outside?
(a) Give them to the horses.
(b) Hurl them.
(c) Swallow them.
(d) Chew them.

12. When Joe Lindsay says that there ought to be a law about Sykes's behavior, he says that Sykes "ain't fit tuh carry guts to a" (3) what?
(a) A vulture.
(b) A hyena.
(c) A seagull.
(d) A bear.

13. How long after their wedding had Sykes brutally beaten Delia?
(a) Three months.
(b) Two years.
(c) Three years.
(d) Two months.

14. The narrator describes Delia's shoulders as thin and what?
(a) Strong.
(b) Sloped.
(c) Bent.
(d) Stooped.

15. What does the narrator say that Delia is able to "build...against her husband" (3) after she decides that he will reap what he sows?
(a) A wall of hatred.
(b) A decadent shroud.
(c) A code of silence.
(d) A spiritual earthworks.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Delia picks up an object and strikes a pose after being threatened by Sykes, what does the narrator state as the action that Sykes refrains from performing, though he usually would perform it right away in such a situation?

2. What day of the week is considered the Sabbath within traditional Christianity?

3. When the scene shifts to the porch at the corner store for the first time, what month is it?

4. What "habitual" character trait of Delia's seems "to slip from her shoulders" (1) after Sykes threatens her with physical violence?

5. In what room does Delia sort the clothes she will launder?

(see the answer keys)

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