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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. On the afternoon when Sykes and Bertha come to the store, what does the narrator say had even "collapsed under the heat"? (3)
(a) Conversation.
(b) Common sense.
(c) Good will.
(d) Friendships.

2. The narrator describes Delia as giving "a little scream of" (2) what when Sykes steps upon her laundry?
(a) Rage.
(b) Dismay.
(c) Surprise.
(d) Outrage.

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

4. What does Delia say Sykes had brought to their marriage?
(a) Anger.
(b) Lies.
(c) Violence.
(d) A longing after the flesh.

5. What adjective does the narrator use to describe Delia's pose when she picks up the object after Sykes threatens to hit her?
(a) Menacing.
(b) Murderous.
(c) Defensive.
(d) Foreboding.

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

7. Jim says that Sykes has always been crazy about what kind of women?
(a) Beautiful.
(b) Fat.
(c) Dark.
(d) Light.

8. What "habitual" character trait of Delia's seems "to slip from her shoulders" (1) after Sykes threatens her with physical violence?
(a) Humility.
(b) Meekness.
(c) Ease.
(d) Honesty.

9. The bullwhip is described by the narrator as long, round, limp, and what?
(a) Heavy.
(b) Black.
(c) Cold.
(d) Studded.

10. What does Delia call Sykes's action of scaring her with the bullwhip?
(a) A joke.
(b) An injustice.
(c) A travesty.
(d) A sin.

11. When Sykes leaves and Delia feels certain that he will not be home until a certain time, when is that time?
(a) After dawn.
(b) The following week.
(c) Nearly daybreak.
(d) The following night.

12. When the scene shifts to the porch at the corner store for the first time, what month is it?
(a) February.
(b) July.
(c) December.
(d) April.

13. What adjective does Sykes use to describe Delia just before he steps into the room where she is sorting laundry?
(a) Aggravating.
(b) Annoying.
(c) Solicitous.
(d) Dissembling.

14. 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 seagull.
(c) A hyena.
(d) A bear.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What title does the narrator ascribe to Delia's job of doing other people's laundry?

2. For how long has Delia been married to Sykes?

3. What adjective does the narrator use to describe Delia's washtub?

4. When Sykes declares how tired he is of Delia and leaves the house, what does he do on his way out?

5. When one of the men's wives had repelled Sykes's advances, she had told him that Delia worked so hard that she bet everything in the house tasted like sweat and what?

(see the answer keys)

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