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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. Before Delia begs Sykes to kill the rattlesnake he has brought home, what does she ask him to do with it?
(a) Pick it up.
(b) Take it away.
(c) Find it some food.
(d) Set it free.

2. What reason does Sykes provide for his conclusion that the snake would never bite him?
(a) Because he has already de-fanged the snake.
(b) Because he knows how to handle the snake.
(c) Because the snake knows it would be killed.
(d) Because snakes do not bite masculine men.

3. Who first entreats Joe to bring a melon from the store and to slice it up for the men?
(a) Joe Clarke.
(b) Old Man Anderson.
(c) Joe Lindsay.
(d) Elijah.

4. What causes the snake to come alive and start to rattle incessantly?
(a) It finishes digesting its food.
(b) The weather gets warmer.
(c) Sykes feeds it a mouse.
(d) It rains.

5. What does the narrator say "pleased him for Delia to see" (4) when Sykes is ordering at Joe Clarke's store?
(a) The spending of her money.
(b) His flagrant abuse of her pony with his bullwhip.
(c) His mistress accompanying him out in public.
(d) His determination to ignore her.

Short Answer Questions

1. What item does Sykes NOT buy from Joe Clarke's store during his visit there?

2. What idiom does Sykes use to describe his suggested action for anyone who does not like the snake?

3. When Delia confronts Sykes at the dinner table about removing the snake, what two behaviors of his does she say she has put up with for many years?

4. When Sykes says that one reason he caught the snake easily was because it had just had a meal, what does he say it had just eaten?

5. When Delia comes home and finds Sykes standing in the kitchen doorway, she says that her only two options are to stoop under his arm or to do what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What causes a "determined silence" (4) to fall over the porch when the men are about to slice the watermelon?

2. How does Sykes use the occasion of bringing home the rattlesnake in order to once again attack Delia's physical appearance?

3. What is the significance of the snake baring its "scimitar" (6)-like fangs at Delia?

4. What is Hurston's purpose for alluding to Gethsemane and the rocks of Calvary during the period of conflict with Sykes?

5. How does the author demonstrate the village's viewpoint regarding Sykes's keeping of the rattlesnake?

6. How does Delia try "to be blind and deaf" (5) to Sykes's gallivanting around town with Bertha?

7. How does Sykes go about showing the rattlesnake to Delia after he has brought it home?

8. How does Delia react once Sykes both refuses to remove the rattlesnake and threatens to beat her?

9. What does Delia say is different about Bertha in comparison to other women with whom Sykes has had affairs?

10. What arguments do the men present when they are trying to get Joe Clarke to bring out a watermelon for them to share?

(see the answer keys)

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