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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 level was the kitchen garden in Vermont?

2. According to the author, who defined the "small community"?

3. What was served nearly every day for lunch at the Nearings?

4. In the breakdown of the Nearing's diet, how much of percentage was their intake of fruit?

5. What was the relationship between the Nearings and law enforcement?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were the Nearings' views regarding the roof of structures? What material did they end up using in Vermont?

2. 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?

3. How did the Nearings pick the lettuce in the winter to keep it from wilting?

4. 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?

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

6. What is a whole food? How did the Nearings describe a whole food?

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

8. How did the issue of serving liquor at community events affect the valley in Vermont?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How important was documentation? How did the Nearings document their farming experiment?

Essay Topic 2

How was the planting cycle used by the Nearings like the Japanese planting cycle? Why did the Japanese use gardens in a similar way to the Nearings?

Essay Topic 3

As others viewed life as meaningless and looked for forms of escape after the war, how did the Nearings view life? What did they mean by "urgent?"

(see the answer keys)

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