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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. At the musical events on Sunday morning, what was to be avoided?
(a) Electric music.
(b) Sermons.
(c) The use of religious music.
(d) Rock and roll music.

2. How did the Nearings divide their "jobs to be done" on their card index of activities?
(a) By "building projects" and "garden projects."
(b) By "cash labor" and "free labor."
(c) By "clear weather jobs" and "rainy day jobs."
(d) By "wood and fuel jobs" and "canning."

3. At the Nearing's house, what "rounded out" breakfast?
(a) Coffee.
(b) A handful of cranberries.
(c) Cereal with milk.
(d) A handful of sunflower seeds.

4. What direction do the rows in a garden need to be planted to assure maximum sun to the roots?
(a) North and South.
(b) At right angles.
(c) East and West.
(d) Not in rows, but in pods.

5. How did the Nearings eat fresh from the garden?
(a) By picking produce early and letting it ripen off the vine.
(b) By eating with the seasons.
(c) By freezing food.
(d) By canning early in the season.

6. What size were the Nearing's compost piles?
(a) 10 x 10 feet square.
(b) 5 x 5 feet square and deep.
(c) 8 x 8 feet square.
(d) 10 x 16 feet rectangle.

7. What, according to the Nearings, is the food furthest removed from the soil?
(a) Cooked caracasses of beasts, birds, and fish.
(b) The produce in your grocery store.
(c) The farmer's market produce.
(d) Fresh dairy from a neighbor.

8. What did the Nearings store potatoes, carrots, beets turnips, celery root and apples?
(a) In generous layers of leaves in the cellar.
(b) In the garden, covered.
(c) In the greenhouse.
(d) In the refrigerator.

9. What did the Nearings use to cook in?
(a) Granite pots.
(b) Pottery only.
(c) Tin pans.
(d) Stainless steel, enamel, pottery, or glass vessels.

10. Upon arriving in Vermont, who sold the Nearings milk?
(a) The Lightfoots.
(b) The local grocery.
(c) The Nearings had cows.
(d) The previous owners

11. Who did Frederick Van de Water represent during the mail battle?
(a) Ski Enterprises.
(b) Forestry development.
(c) The U.S. Government.
(d) Freeman Inc.

12. What did the Nearings find that made a perfect base for their house in Vermont?
(a) A level meadow.
(b) A rock ledge over a waterfall.
(c) A cliff overlooking the water.
(d) A 26 foot split boulder.

13. Who was the local mailman in the valley in Vermont in 1945?
(a) Floyd Hurd.
(b) Walter Twing.
(c) Harold Field.
(d) Wallace Crowninshield.

14. What did some people think of the Nearings when they visited them in Vermont?
(a) That they were uncordial.
(b) That they were sloppy.
(c) That they were too old to be working on a farm.
(d) That they would go hungry if they stayed.

15. Whose building system did the Nearings follow when building their stone system?
(a) Greene and Greene.
(b) Ernest Flagg.
(c) Minnie Pearl.
(d) Stickley.

Short Answer Questions

1. Under optimum conditions, when should wheat be ground if you are baking?

2. According to the author, who defined the "small community"?

3. How, according to the Nearings, can you build whole, living, balanced soil?

4. How did the Nearings ask workers how much they wanted for a job on the farm?

5. What kind of roofs did the Nearings put on their houses?

(see the answer keys)

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