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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When building the new stone house in Vermont, what did the Nearings include?
(a) A detached cellar.
(b) A guesthouse.
(c) A barn.
(d) A chicken coop.

2. 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.

3. Why did the Nearings NOT join a communal experience?
(a) There were none available or functioning into which they could have happily and effectively fit.
(b) They didn't want to move to the west coast.
(c) They didn't want to work with other people.
(d) They didn't want to move to Europe.

4. What was served nearly every day for lunch at the Nearings?
(a) Soup and a salad.
(b) Tea.
(c) Sandwiches.
(d) Meatloaf.

5. Why did the Nearings like stone buildings?
(a) They were cheaper to maintain, would not burn and were cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.
(b) They were easy to build with.
(c) They were not as pretty as wood, but more solid.
(d) They were like a fortress and kept visitors away.

6. What did the Nearings sell as a cash crop in Vermont?
(a) Dairy.
(b) Vegetables.
(c) Cattle.
(d) Syrup and sugar.

7. What, according to the Nearings, do white flour products do to a person's health?
(a) It hurts the heart.
(b) It lowers intestinal health and harms lower nerve centers.
(c) It hurts the liver.
(d) Nothing.

8. The Nearings claimed that they were planning not a business, but a __________.
(a) Vacation home.
(b) Working farm.
(c) Functioning homestead.
(d) Useful vegetable garden.

9. How did the Nearings make applesauce?
(a) They chopped up the apples and stored them through the winter until it was applesauce time.
(b) The "open kettle" way.
(c) They froze them in the freezer.
(d) They strained the apples through cheesecloth and canned them.

10. What did Walter Twing do on Saturdays?
(a) He worked in his garden.
(b) He collected sap from the trees.
(c) He tended his horses.
(d) He did not work.

11. How, according to the Nearings, can you build whole, living, balanced soil?
(a) By composting.
(b) By using soil from the forest only.
(c) By burning areas of the forest.
(d) By burning leaves.

12. How did the Nearings light their home?
(a) Electricity.
(b) Candles.
(c) With kerosene and candles.
(d) Gas.

13. How old, according to the Nearings, were they when they decided to move to Vermont?
(a) 70.
(b) 68 and 69.
(c) In their 20s.
(d) Approaching fifty.

14. What did the Nearings use as silverware?
(a) They fingers.
(b) Sterling silver silverware.
(c) Chopsticks.
(d) Plastic silverware.

15. Who attended the party when the mail route was restored in Vermont?
(a) The Postmaster General of the state.
(b) The Governor of the State of Vermont.
(c) The Representative who represented their valley.
(d) The Attorney General of the state.

Short Answer Questions

1. What newspapers got on board to help the citizens of the valley then the mail was canceled?

2. How did the Nearlings choke out the weeds around berry plants in Vermont?

3. What did Harold Field feel about working with the Nearings to make sugar?

4. When the Nearings talked about being vegetarians, which neighbors changed their habits and also became vegetarians?

5. What happened to the fords that the Nearings built when they first moved to Vermont?

(see the answer keys)

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