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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What do some people think about discontinuing the lottery?
(a) Some people want to make the lottery grander.
(b) Some people want to change the date of the lottery.
(c) Some people want to hold the lottery twice a year.
(d) Some people want to discontinue the lottery.

2. What is revealing about the social order of the village?
(a) The men are drinking ale.
(b) The children and running around unsupervised.
(c) The women hold a superior position.
(d) The men and women are not together.

3. Why do they stop using the wood chips?
(a) The village population is growing.
(b) People get splinters form the wood.
(c) They want to be more modern.
(d) Trees are getting scarce.

4. What does Tessie's paper mean?
(a) She will have to draw again.
(b) She gets to select the winner.
(c) She has been chosen.
(d) She is out of the lottery.

5. Why are people gathering in the town square?
(a) The mayor is making a speech.
(b) They are voting whether to discontinue the lottery.
(c) It is the annual lottery day.
(d) There is a band concert that morning.

6. What is Old man Warner's meaning when he says lottery in June, corn harvest soon?
(a) He sees the lottery as a way to fill time until the harvest.
(b) He thinks the lottery magically makes the harvest good.
(c) He thinks that June is too soon for the lottery.
(d) He judges time by the lottery.

7. How do they assemble when it is time to begin the ceremony?
(a) In double file lines.
(b) Coming together in family groups.
(c) Making a huge circle in the town square.
(d) Crowding forward to try and be first to draw.

8. Who is assigned to conduct the lottery?
(a) Mr. Graves.
(b) Mr. Martin.
(c) Mr. Summers.
(d) Mr. Hutchinson.

9. In the story, what idea does Shirley Jackson carefully avoid?
(a) Winning the lottery.
(b) The odds of winning.
(c) The time it takes to hold the lottery.
(d) Sweepstakes.

10. What serious formality occurs before the lottery begins?
(a) The pledge of allegiance.
(b) The swearing in of the officials.
(c) The blessing of the box.
(d) The singing of the village anthem.

11. What does Tessie do with her paper?
(a) She holds it behind her back.
(b) She puts it in her purse.
(c) She runs around showing it to all the women.
(d) She looks at it and is dissapointed that hers is not the one.

12. When Mr. Summers says it is time, what does everyone do?
(a) Look at their papers and hold them up.
(b) Look at their papers and not show them.
(c) Drop their papers in the box.
(d) Tear their papers into small pieces.

13. Which man holds the winning paper?
(a) Old man Warner.
(b) Mr. Graves.
(c) Bob Martin.
(d) Bill Hutchinson.

14. What is stressed as important to the lottery all through the story?
(a) That everyone does not need to be present.
(b) That everyone knows how the tradition began.
(c) That it is a tradition that must be continued.
(d) That family is the least important thing in the village.

15. What is the tone as the story begins?
(a) Cheerful, bright, and colorful.
(b) Dry like a newspaper article.
(c) An average day with overcast sky.
(d) Dreary and ominous.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Tessie try to add her daughter's family to Bill Hutchinson's second drawing?

2. What does Jackson suggest about civic prominence in the character of Mr. Summers.

3. Who gets to go first in the second drawing?

4. What is the atmosphere of the village as the lottery gets under way?

5. Why are the children running around that morning?

(see the answer keys)

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