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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. What do the two men do with Ownby after they pick him up?
(a) Take him to the police station.
(b) Take him to a cabin for breakfast.
(c) Take him to a soup kitchen.
(d) Take him to a hotel.

2. What is Uncle Ather's job?
(a) Bootlegger.
(b) Deputy.
(c) Electrician.
(d) Orchard keeper.

3. How did Sylder lose part of his toe?
(a) An anchor dropped on it.
(b) A bullet grazed it.
(c) A piano fell on it.
(d) He got gangrene.

4. Why is Ownby going to be arrested?
(a) For murder.
(b) For defacing the government tank.
(c) For gun smuggling.
(d) For bootlegging.

5. What do the boys do in the cave?
(a) Clean their guns.
(b) Smoke cigarettes.
(c) Play cards.
(d) Look at pictures of nude women.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many police officers is Ownby accused of shooting?

2. Why does Officer Legwater sift through the ashes in the peach pit?

3. Uncle Ather tells the boys about a time when he caught a _______________.

4. How much prison time does Sylder get for running whiskey?

5. What is the orchard keeper's name?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Sylder's toe injury probably unrelated to a war injury?

2. Why does Gifford focus his question about Ownby on a storekeep named Huffaker?

3. Describe Ownby's encounter with a welfare department agent in the jail.

4. What is the significance of cats in the story?

5. Why does Sylder stop at Officer Gifford's house on the way home from a whiskey run?

6. What sense of foreboding does Sylder have as he tries to fall asleep?

7. How does John Wesley manage to get into the mental asylum to visit Ownby?

8. How else might the irony of Sylder and John Wesley's friendship be interpreted?

9. Why does McCarthy wait until this point in the story to reveal the orchard keeper's formal name?

10. Does it appear that Arthur is completely anti-social?

(see the answer keys)

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