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. When Brother finally decides to treat Doodle like a brother, where does he take him for the first time?
(a) The cottonfield.
(b) Old Woman Swamp.
(c) Horsehead Landing.
(d) The family graveyard.

2. What draws the family's attention to the ibis?
(a) A croaking noise.
(b) The sound of its wings.
(c) A flash of red.
(d) The loud reaction of their chickens.

3. Where is the ibis perched?
(a) In the loft of the barn.
(b) On the grindstone.
(c) In the bleeding tree.
(d) On the roof of the house.

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

5. When Brother says that both he and Doodle believed in his "infallibility" (7), what does he mean that they believe?
(a) That Brother always succeeds.
(b) That Brother is a good Christian.
(c) That Brother can never do anything wrong.
(d) That Brother is kind.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Daddy have Mr. Heath make for Doodle?

2. When is the story being told?

3. What area is the ibis native to?

4. Why does Doodle cry when Brother takes him to see the "only beauty" Brother knows (3)?

5. Why does Brother cry when everyone hugs him for teaching Doodle to walk?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. How does Doodle get his nickname?

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. Whenever Doodle wants to quit trying to learn how to walk, how does "Brother" motivate him to keep trying?

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

9. What "training" plan does "Brother" come up with for Doodle, and what is his motive?

10. When the narrator finally realizes that he will have to take Doodle everywhere he goes, where does he take Doodle, and what is Doodle's reaction?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 937 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample