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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. 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 leaves.
(d) By burning areas of the forest.

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

3. How did the Nearings get stones to build their buildings?
(a) They cut them from large slates of granite.
(b) They collected them around their farm.
(c) They bought them from a gravel company.
(d) They brought them home from their travels abroad.

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

5. When the Nearings started their first garden in Vermont, what caused a quagmire and nearly ruined the garden?
(a) A spring on the high side of the garden.
(b) The threat of fire.
(c) Deer that kept eating the apples.
(d) A sinkhole the size of a large truck.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How was the Sunday morning musical events divided?

3. How did the Nearings divide their "jobs to be done" on their card index of activities?

4. In the breakdown of the Nearing's diet, how was the intake of vegetables broken down?

5. What became a big problem for the town when discussing social events that nearly ripped the town apart?

Short Essay Questions

1. When others thought the Nearings were self-punishing, how did they view their life?

2. How did the Nearings decide to make maple syrup as their cash crop? How did this decision surprise them?

3. Who was this book written for?

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

5. Why did the Nearings decide on New England as a place to settle and not the southwest or other areas of the country or world?

6. What, according to the Nearings, was the value of compost and mulch?

7. How did the Nearings decorate? What kind of furniture and fireplaces did they use?

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

9. How much time did it take for the Nearings to provide food for the year, furnish their house and fuel, and provide needed repairs on the farm? What were the positive outcomes of their system?

10. What made the Vermont community shrink even as the Nearings lived there?

(see the answer keys)

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