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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. How were the Nearings travel expenses paid when they were asked to speak or lecture?

2. What was Hancock County, Maine known for?

3. What did the Nearings use to excavate the pond bed with?

4. In Vermont, what mountain did the Nearings live at the foot of?

5. How many years did it take before the Nearings had blueberries to sell?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Scott Nearing remove a large tree?

2. What was the importance of Bretton Brubaker's work on the house in Maine?

3. What was the Nearing's favorite tool?

4. Why, according to the Nearings, do most people want old buildings?

5. What point do the Nearings make about personal style in a home?

6. What did the Nearings continue to find on the farm?

7. What one regret did the authors have about the stone wall they had to build around the garden in Maine?

8. How were the Nearings gardens like Japanese gardens?

9. In what ways did the Nearings use wood from the forest?

10. When the Nearings found a worn-out apple tree near the blueberries, how did they make it grow?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What was the importance of year-round farming to the Nearings, and how did they handle canning and storing their food?

Essay Topic 2

Why did the Nearings have no fear of age? Think about the age they were when they moved to Vermont. Why did this not bother them?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the general workday. How did the Nearings work? How many hours were devoted to work and how many to leisure? Why did they set up their farm in this way? What were the benefits? What were the drawbacks?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 724 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample