View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Brother know is covering the casket that he makes Doodle touch?
(a) Poison.
(b) Bird droppings.
(c) Cockroaches.
(d) Spiderwebs.

2. What is an "ibis"?
(a) A fish.
(b) A bird.
(c) A flower.
(d) A type of tree.

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

4. What causes Brother to say that Doodle is a "burden in many ways" (3)?
(a) The doctor has made a long list of rules for taking care of Doodle.
(b) Brother's friends make fun of Doodle.
(c) Doodle talks almost all the time.
(d) Doodle is getting too heavy for Brother to pull in the cart.

5. What is Doodle's real name?
(a) William Armstrong.
(b) James Hurst.
(c) It is never given.
(d) Robert Graves.

6. What are Doodle's last words?
(a) "Don't leave me!"
(b) "I love you."
(c) "Don't hurt me!"
(d) "I told you."

7. How does the ibis die?
(a) Brother shoots it.
(b) Daddy shoots it.
(c) It dies of natural causes.
(d) One of the family's cats attacks it.

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

9. How old is Doodle when he begins to try to move himself?
(a) 1.
(b) 4.
(c) 3.
(d) 2.

10. Even though it seems hopeless, why does Brother say he keeps trying to teach Doodle to walk?
(a) Pride.
(b) Pity.
(c) Anger.
(d) Love.

11. When Brother says that the smell of the graveyard flowers is coming through their windows and "speaking softy the names of our dead" (1), this is an example of which literary technique?
(a) Personification.
(b) Hyperbole.
(c) Understatement.
(d) Euphemism.

12. What is the "caul" that Doodle is born with?
(a) A red, bird-shaped birthmark.
(b) A hand that is curved like a hook.
(c) A piece of the sac that protected him before he was born.
(d) A full head of hair.

13. On what does Brother blame his cruelty toward Doodle?
(a) The unfair burden of having to take care of his brother.
(b) His own nature and his love for Doodle.
(c) His embarrassment and shame due to Doodle's disability.
(d) His jealousy of Doodle's happy temperment.

14. What happens when Brother begins to dance Aunt Nicey around after they reveal that Doodle can walk?
(a) Aunt Nicey falls down.
(b) Mama tells him to stop immediately.
(c) Doodle starts to imitate them.
(d) She steps hard on his toe.

15. Why, at the end of summer, does Brother start to push Doodle so hard in his "training" efforts?
(a) Harvest season is coming and Brother wants Doodle to be strong enough to help this year.
(b) Brother knows that when winter comes, Doodle is likely to be too ill to keep training.
(c) School is coming and Doodle does not yet have the physical skills to keep up with other boys.
(d) Brother knows that when school starts, Doodle is likely to be too busy to keep training.

Short Answer Questions

1. On page 8, when Brother warns Doodle that he will be different from the other boys at school, what is Doodle's reply?

2. When Brother says, of the hope they had when they started training, "Success lay at the end of summer like a pot of gold" (7), what should the reader understand from this simile?

3. What replaces the tree in the yard?

4. What are Brother and Doodle doing on the day when Doodle cannot keep going and falls to the ground, crying?

5. What is the first problem the family's crops have in the year that Brother is training Doodle?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 667 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample