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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Brother respond to Doodle's love for natural beauty?
(a) He gets Doodle art supplies so that he can paint flowers.
(b) He takes Doodle to Old Woman Swamp over and over.
(c) He decides to teach Doodle to swim.
(d) He gets Doodle a book full of pictures of flowers.

2. Who is the first to see the ibis?
(a) Aunt Nicey.
(b) Brother.
(c) Daddy.
(d) Doodle.

3. What do Doodle and Brother do to pass the time when they are out and need to stop walking so that Doodle can rest?
(a) They take turns reading to each other.
(b) They make up stories.
(c) They practice throwing a ball.
(d) They imagine their future together.

4. The sentence "Mama once said, 'And bless the Pearsons, whose boy Joe was lost at Belleau Wood'" (8) is an example of which literary technique?
(a) Sarcasm.
(b) Foreshadowing.
(c) Hyperbole.
(d) Metaphor.

5. At first, Daddy is upset by the hurricane and looks defeated. What does he do that makes Brother and Doodle think that things will be all right?
(a) Raises his fist and curses the weather and the Republican party.
(b) Says a prayer and tells them God will take care of them.
(c) Jumps into a puddle in the field and pretends to swim.
(d) Scoops Doodle up and dances with him in the rain.

6. What is the first problem the family's crops have in the year that Brother is training Doodle?
(a) Drought.
(b) Floods.
(c) Frost.
(d) Insects.

7. In the description of the garden "ironweeds grew rank amid the purple phlox" (1), what does "rank" mean is true about the ironweeds?
(a) They are taller than the phlox.
(b) They are in orderly rows in between the phlox.
(c) They are everywhere and possibly also smell bad.
(d) They are more important than the phlox.

8. In the place name "Horsehead Landing," what does the word "landing" mean?
(a) A flat place between two flights of stairs.
(b) The annual size of a catch of fish from a particular body of water.
(c) A dock or other place for boats to transfer people and cargo to land.
(d) A place where planes touch down.

9. What literary techniques are shown in the phrase, "[I]t lay on the earth like a broken vase of red flowers" (9)?
(a) Imagery, foreshadowing, and simile.
(b) Imagery, metaphor, and allegory.
(c) Symbolism, flashback, and euphemism.
(d) Metaphor, allusion, and symbolism.

10. Where is the ibis perched?
(a) In the bleeding tree.
(b) In the loft of the barn.
(c) On the roof of the house.
(d) On the grindstone.

11. When Brother says that both he and Doodle believed in his "infallibility" (7), what does he mean that they believe?
(a) That Brother always succeeds.
(b) That Brother is a good Christian.
(c) That Brother can never do anything wrong.
(d) That Brother is kind.

12. When Brother comments that "Hope no longer hid in the dark palmetto thicket but perched like a cardinal in the lacy toothbrush tree, brilliantly visible" (3), what two literary techniques are being used?
(a) Irony and understatement.
(b) Personification and simile.
(c) Metaphor and imagery.
(d) Hyperbole and sarcasm.

13. Doodle has an active mind and talks a lot. What is his family's reaction to this?
(a) They are jealous of him.
(b) They ignore him.
(c) They make fun of him.
(d) They suggest that he might become a writer.

14. What evidence is there that Brother is pushing Doodle too hard?
(a) Doodle begins to have nose bleeds.
(b) Doodle begins to have trouble breathing.
(c) Doodle becomes feverish and has nightmares.
(d) Doodle talks less and seems confused at times.

15. When, on page 8, Brother says that they kept working with "doggedness," what does he mean?
(a) They worked beyond the point that is reasonable.
(b) They worked with determination and persistence.
(c) They worked playfully and happily.
(d) They worked slowly and methodically.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Mama notice about the ibis?

2. What is the swamp near their house called?

3. Why does Doodle cry when Brother takes him to see the "only beauty" Brother knows (3)?

4. When is the story being told?

5. Just before they notice the ibis, what does Daddy say he is expecting?

(see the answer keys)

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