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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What color did the Nearings paint their roof?

2. Who was the local mailman in the valley in Vermont in 1945?

3. What did M.B. Kains recommend that farmers serve to their guests when they came for Sunday dinner?

4. What, according to the Nearings, is the food furthest removed from the soil?

5. The Nearings thought living in Vermont would be justified as an example of sane living in an _____________.

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of visitors came to stay at the farm? Who were successful, and who were not and why?

2. Who was this book written for?

3. Describe how the Nearings made fruit juice as a simple process.

4. Why did cooperative living fail in the valley for the Nearings?

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

6. What happens to flour when it is processed?

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

8. 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?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why did the Nearings decide to build stone buildings? What were the advantages to this type of building? What were the disadvantage? How did they make the building? Write a short description.

Essay Topic 2

What, according the the Nearings, was bed gardening and how was it used by other countries?

Essay Topic 3

What kind of people never visited the Nearings? Why do you think that was the case?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 755 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample