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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did the boys serving in the war do to help the valley when the mail was canceled?
(a) Call their representatives.
(b) Write lots of letters home.
(c) Write their representatives.
(d) Stop writing letters.

2. What did Harold Field feel about working with the Nearings to make sugar?
(a) The work schedule was too rigid.
(b) He thrived in the environment.
(c) He liked the work, but hated their food.
(d) He worked with them for 15 years.

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

4. What did the Nearings later attach to their first stone building?
(a) A visitor's center.
(b) A campsite.
(c) A well.
(d) A garage.

5. What did the Nearings eat from?
(a) Wooden bowls.
(b) Plastic plates.
(c) Plates.
(d) China.

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

7. Why did the Nearings chose Vermont and not Eastern Pennsylvania?
(a) Pennsylvania was too crowded.
(b) The land costs were more reasonable.
(c) They hated the barns in Pennsylvania.
(d) They wanted a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

8. What did the Nearings do with the spring they found in the back of the cellar-hole?
(a) They concreted the sides and ran a pipe up to the kitchen sink.
(b) They plugged it up.
(c) They ran the water to the garden.
(d) They ran the water to the outhouse.

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

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

11. What did most friends of the Nearings dub their guesthouses?
(a) The "Waldorf."
(b) The "uncomfortable bed inn."
(c) The "free inn."
(d) The "homeless inn."

12. What was inserted into the compost pile to help break down matter?
(a) Bees.
(b) Earth worms and worm capsules.
(c) Snakes.
(d) Ants.

13. What level was the kitchen garden in Vermont?
(a) On the level with the house.
(b) At waist-high level.
(c) Below sea level.
(d) Up three steps.

14. How did the Nearings keep records of their projects at the farm?
(a) In notebooks.
(b) In their heads.
(c) On loose sheets of paper.
(d) On a computer.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How did the Nearings describe the stone wall when it was finished?

2. How much did the Nearings pay for the hand concrete mixer?

3. How old, according to the Nearings, were they when they decided to move to Vermont?

4. At the Nearing's house, what "rounded out" breakfast?

5. What political persuasion were most Vermonters?

(see the answer keys)

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