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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What are Brother and Doodle doing on the day when Doodle cannot keep going and falls to the ground, crying?
(a) Boxing.
(b) Running.
(c) Rope climbing.
(d) Walking.

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

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

4. What do Doodle and Brother leave to do after lunch?
(a) Go rowing at Horsehead Landing.
(b) Climb vines at Old Woman Swamp.
(c) Box at Old Woman Swamp.
(d) Search to see if they can find the ibis's mate.

5. What does Doodle say when Brother tells him he is going to teach him to walk?
(a) Thank you.
(b) He will try.
(c) It is not a good idea.
(d) That he cannot walk.

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

7. When is the story being told?
(a) At the end of Brother's life.
(b) Some years after the events of the story take place.
(c) In the winter, after Doodle dies.
(d) Immediately after the events of the story take place.

8. When Doodle first begins to move, how does Mama feel?
(a) Apathetic.
(b) Overjoyed.
(c) Puzzled.
(d) Anxious.

9. 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.

10. What does Brother say causes him to run home during the storm?
(a) Fear.
(b) Shame.
(c) Disappointment.
(d) Cruelty.

11. Just before they notice the ibis, what does Daddy say he is expecting?
(a) A delicious dessert.
(b) A storm.
(c) A larger cotton crop than usual.
(d) A letter from a neighbor who is fighting in the war.

12. Why does Brother treat Doodle roughly when he first starts taking him outside in his cart?
(a) Doodle annoys him by asking constant questions.
(b) He wants Doodle to stop asking to come with him.
(c) He is too young to understand how delicate Doodle is.
(d) He is still trying to hurt Doodle because Doodle embarrasses him.

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

14. Who claims that dead birds are bad luck?
(a) Mama.
(b) Daddy.
(c) Doodle.
(d) Aunt Nicey.

15. Where are Doodle's cart and coffin in the time when this story is being told?
(a) Still in the loft in the barn.
(b) In the front room of the house.
(c) They have been thrown away.
(d) They were buried with Doodle.

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. Doodle has an active mind and talks a lot. What is his family's reaction to this?

3. What draws the family's attention to the ibis?

4. 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?

5. When Brother says that "the flood of childish spite evanesced" (11), what is he saying happened?

(see the answer keys)

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