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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Tom doing at the office on his last day?
(a) Selling his business.
(b) Buying the land the swamp sits on.
(c) Accepting an offer to run for governor.
(d) Foreclosing a mortgage.

2. The narrator says that it is possible that Tom's wife was lost in a slough. Where would this mean she was lost?
(a) In a cave.
(b) In a pit.
(c) In forest.
(d) In wetland.

3. Who is William Kidd?
(a) A sailor accused of being a pirate.
(b) A neighbor of Tom Walker's.
(c) A prominent citizen of Tom Walker's town.
(d) The governor of Massachusetts.

4. What is the rumor in town about Absalom Crowninshield?
(a) That he is a pirate.
(b) That he is a money lender.
(c) That he has taken bribes.
(d) That he is a slave trader.

5. What is unusual about the house that Tom builds with the money he earns?
(a) It is in the middle of the swamp.
(b) It is mostly unfinished and has little furniture.
(c) It is made from rotted timber.
(d) It contains an alter to the devil.

6. Who is said to have been present when the treasure was buried?
(a) Geoffery Crayon.
(b) Tom Walker.
(c) The devil.
(d) A whaler.

7. What is financial speculation?
(a) A group of expert opinions about the economy.
(b) A joking term for illegal gambling.
(c) Illegal investing by people with inside information.
(d) Buying something with the hope that it will rapidly increase in value.

8. What makes the item on Tom's desk ironic?
(a) Tom's superstition.
(b) The use of the item later in the story.
(c) The nature of Tom's enemy.
(d) Tom's job.

9. On what land feature did the old Native stronghold stand?
(a) A plateau.
(b) A hill.
(c) A peninsula.
(d) An island.

10. When the narrator refers to Tom's parsimony, what characteristic is being discussed?
(a) Hypocrisy.
(b) Evil.
(c) Trickery.
(d) Cheapness.

11. What can a reader infer is one of the devil's conditions in the bargain he makes with Tom?
(a) Tom will bring the devil other people to make bargains with.
(b) Tom will give his soul to the devil.
(c) Tom will not get the money until he makes a sacrifice to the devil.
(d) Tom will not tell anyone where he got the money.

12. Who wrote "The Devil and Tom Walker"?
(a) Stephen Vincent Benét
(b) Washington Irving.
(c) Nathaniel Hawthorne.
(d) Geoffery Crayon.

13. What news does Tom's wife have for him when he returns from the swamp?
(a) Absalom Crowninshield has died.
(b) A great treasure has been mysteriously left on their step.
(c) Their horse has escaped and they need to replace it.
(d) The governor himself has been to visit them.

14. In the passage about Tom's activities in church, what aspect of his character is being stressed?
(a) Selfishness.
(b) Hypocrisy.
(c) Loneliness.
(d) Miserliness.

15. What is the weather like on Tom's last day?
(a) It is unseasonably hot.
(b) It snows in the middle of summer.
(c) A storm is brewing.
(d) It rains nonstop.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator compare Tom's clients to?

2. What does the narrator say is hard to believe about the conversation between Tom and the devil?

3. Why does Tom's wife go into the swamp, looking for the devil?

4. Why does the pirate not retrieve his treasure?

5. What significant event happened in Massachusetts in 1727?

(see the answer keys)

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