View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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.

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Why, at the end of summer, does Brother start to push Doodle so hard in his "training" efforts?

2. Why does Brother think that it is a good thing for Doodle to have a silly name?

3. When Brother asks "What are the words that can solder cracked pride?" (11), what is he comparing words to?

4. What do Mama and Daddy say about Brother's plan to train Doodle physically?

5. What do Doodle and Brother leave to do after lunch?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What images of death does the story open with?

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

4. When school is getting closer, at the end of the summer, how is Doodle doing with his physical training, and what is the result?

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

6. How old is Doodle when he learns to walk, and why is his age relevant to him learning to walk?

7. Toward the end of summer, how does "Brother" say that he and Doodle are feeling about the training, and why do they keep going?

8. How does Daddy react to the hurricane, and what emotions do his reactions cause in his sons?

9. When Mama tells "Brother" that Doodle might be mentally disabled, what does "Brother" plan to do, and what changes his mind?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,062 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample