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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the reader learn about Doodle from his story about Peter?
(a) Doodle has a vivid imagination.
(b) Doodle is much smarter than Brother.
(c) Doodle secretly hates Brother.
(d) Doodle is frightened of going to school.

2. What is it reasonable to assume the flower necklaces floating away toward the sea at the end of the day might symbolize?
(a) The ease with which nature can be harmed.
(b) The beauty of Brother and Doodle's relationship.
(c) The danger of Doodle's trust in Brother.
(d) The brief nature of youth and innocence.

3. When does the family finally bring Doodle out to be with the rest of the family?
(a) When the doctor tells them they should.
(b) When Aunt Nicey insists on it.
(c) When he learns to speak.
(d) After he learns to crawl.

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

5. 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?
(a) Their goal is worth more than gold, to them.
(b) Their goal is an illusion that they will never reach.
(c) Their goal is dangerous and they should stop.
(d) Their goal is to achieve something magical.

6. 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) Scoops Doodle up and dances with him in the rain.
(b) Says a prayer and tells them God will take care of them.
(c) Raises his fist and curses the weather and the Republican party.
(d) Jumps into a puddle in the field and pretends to swim.

7. 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) Hyperbole.
(b) Sarcasm.
(c) Foreshadowing.
(d) Metaphor.

8. 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) Hyperbole and sarcasm.
(b) Personification and simile.
(c) Irony and understatement.
(d) Metaphor and imagery.

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

10. 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 full head of hair.
(d) A piece of the sac that protected him before he was born.

11. What does Brother compare Doodle to when he finds Doodle dead?
(a) A crashed kite.
(b) The scarlet ibis.
(c) Aunt Nicey.
(d) Himself.

12. 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 place where planes touch down.
(d) A dock or other place for boats to transfer people and cargo to land.

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

14. When the family sees Doodle struggling to bury the ibis, what is their response?
(a) They laugh at him.
(b) Mama sends Brother out to help him.
(c) They feel sad.
(d) Daddy calls to Doodle to stop and come inside.

15. In the first sentence of the story, what meaning does "clove" have in "It was in the clove of seasons" (1)?
(a) The past tense of "cleave."
(b) One section of a bulb of garlic.
(c) The space between the two parts of an animal's hoof.
(d) A dried flower bud that is also a spice.

Short Answer Questions

1. What evidence is there that Brother is pushing Doodle too hard?

2. 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?

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

4. What is "Doodle" short for?

5. When is the story being told?

(see the answer keys)

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