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

2. Just before they notice the ibis, what does Doodle contradict Brother about?
(a) He says that the other boys in school will not care if he is different.
(b) He says that he will be ready to help harvest the cotton.
(c) He says that he heard a rain-frog.
(d) He says that they are done with his physical training.

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

4. When Brother asks "What are the words that can solder cracked pride?" (11), what is he comparing words to?
(a) The paste that holds bricks together.
(b) A salesperson in a store.
(c) The metal used in welding.
(d) A person in the army.

5. Why does Brother think that it is a good thing for Doodle to have a silly name?
(a) Because Doodle has a silly sense of humor.
(b) Because people will not expect much from him.
(c) Because people will like him more.
(d) Because it will distract people from the way Doodle looks.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who claims that dead birds are bad luck?

2. What kind of tree is in Brother's yard when he is a child?

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?

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

5. What are Doodle's last words?

Short Essay Questions

1. When they are eating lunch on the day the ibis appears, what argument are the brothers having?

2. When the boys are almost ready to show the family that Doodle can walk and they keep hinting that they have a big secret, what does Nicey tell them and what is its thematic significance?

3. 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?

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

5. When the family get excited and try to hug "Brother" for teaching Doodle to walk, how does "Brother" react, and why?

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

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

8. When Doodle learns to walk, where does the family put his cart, and why is this symbolically appropriate?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,078 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample