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

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

3. How much heat does an old-fashioned fireplace allow to go up the chimney?
(a) 3/4ths.
(b) 10 percent.
(c) Nine-tenths.
(d) 99 percent.

4. How did the Nearings hold the concrete and stones in place to form the wall?
(a) With movable forms.
(b) With bricks.
(c) With styrofoam.
(d) With metal sheets.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the Nearings have to do to pick their sweet peas?

2. What did some people think of the Nearings when they visited them in Vermont?

3. What did the Nearings use to cook in?

4. What kind of events were held on Saturday nights in the small Vermont town?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was digging a foundation for a building so very important? How deep did the footings need to be and why?

2. What was the Nearings' view about old buildings? What was their solution to old buildings?

3. Why were the music sessions a community success? What was different about them that made people want to stay and visit?

4. What were Frank Lloyd Wright's basic ideas for building that the Nearings followed?

5. What was the Nearings' views of an hourly wage?

6. How did the Nearings plant throughout the winter and continue to eat from the garden?

7. What, according to the authors, is the best part of building a building?

8. What about the Nearings baffled the neighbors the most?

9. How did the cancellation of the mail route in 1945 affect the valley? What did they do? How was this, according to the authors, a positive event for the community?

10. Why did the American Indians live in Connecticut and not Vermont?

(see the answer keys)

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