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

2. When Brother picks Doodle up, trying to teach him to walk, and Doodle falls to the ground, what does Doodle say?
(a) "I can do it."
(b) "I'll tell Mama."
(c) "Don't hurt me, Brother."
(d) "I told you so."

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

4. When Brother says that "the flood of childish spite evanesced" (11), what is he saying happened?
(a) The storm started to break.
(b) His anger went away.
(c) He could see through the trees to where Doodle lay on the ground.
(d) His pride was like a flood of water.

5. How does Brother motivate Doodle to keep trying to learn to walk?
(a) He shames him by making him imagine being an old man pulled around in a cart.
(b) He reminds Doodle of how hard he worked to learn to crawl.
(c) He tells Doodle that other boys will make fun of him if he cannot walk.
(d) He tells him that their mother and father will love him more if he can walk.

Short Answer Questions

1. On what does Brother blame his cruelty toward Doodle?

2. How does the family react when the boys reveal that Doodle can walk?

3. What are Doodle's last words?

4. Why does Mama make Brother return to the table when he is trying to get outside to see the ibis?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What changes in the narrator's life when Daddy makes Doodle a cart?

2. Which character says "And bless the Pearsons, whose boy Joe was lost at Belleau Wood" (8) and what does this comment foreshadow?

3. What is the family's reaction to Doodle when he is born?

4. When "Brother" dances around with Aunt Nicey to celebrate Doodle walking, what happens, and why it is it ironic?

5. How does "Brother" go about teaching Doodle to walk?

6. When Doodle collapses during their "training," what conversation do he and "Brother" have and how does the conversation show their different attitudes about Doodle's disability?

7. When "Brother" tells Doodle that he is going to teach Doodle to walk, what is Doodle's response?

8. What do Doodle and "Brother" do with the flowers at Old Woman Swamp?

9. Where is the grindstone and what is its symbolic meaning?

10. What does the narrator make Doodle do in the barn loft, and how does Doodle react?

(see the answer keys)

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