View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which word from Part III refers to something that threatens to cause evil, harm or injury?
(a) Apathetic
(b) Menacing
(c) Manipulation
(d) Apprehension

2. The narrator states in Part I that the protagonist is used to the lack of what?
(a) Birds
(b) Stars
(c) Warmth
(d) Sun

3. The protagonist steps through the ice and wets himself how high in Part IV?
(a) Halfway to the knees
(b) Halfway up the thighs
(c) To the elbows
(d) To the waist

4. What is a literary figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is the same as another otherwise unrelated object?
(a) Metaphor
(b) Foreshadowing
(c) Irony
(d) Hyperbole

5. Which of the following is a central theme in To Build a Fire?
(a) Man versus nature
(b) Corrupt politics
(c) Forbidden love
(d) Religious persecution

6. The narrator states that the only caresses the dog has known were the caresses of what, in Part III?
(a) The rain
(b) The whip-lash
(c) The wind
(d) Strangers

7. What is significant about the protagonist’s spittle crackling in Part I?
(a) It doesn’t leave his lips
(b) It is blue
(c) It cracks mid-air
(d) It doesn’t melt

8. According to the narrator in Part II, no man had come up or down the silent creek that the protagonist travels on in how long?
(a) A month
(b) 1 week
(c) 3 weeks
(d) Two days

9. What time is it in the beginning of To Build a Fire?
(a) 9:00 a.m.
(b) 4:45 a.m.
(c) 6:30 a.m.
(d) 11:15 a.m.

10. In what year did Jack London die?
(a) 1957
(b) 1969
(c) 1916
(d) 1944

11. The only supply the protagonist is carrying with him on his journey is what?
(a) A handgun
(b) A sled
(c) His lunch
(d) A rifle

12. The narrator states in Part I, “North and south, as far as his eye could see, it was unbroken” what?
(a) Rain
(b) White
(c) Snowstorms
(d) Clouds

13. Jack London's mother was the fifth and youngest child of what Pennsylvania Canal builder?
(a) Marshall Wellman
(b) Jackson Wright
(c) Albert Thompson
(d) Roger Stevens

14. What does the dog do when it has ice formed between its toes from falling into the water in Part II?
(a) Runs away
(b) Tries to chew the ice out
(c) Licks its legs
(d) Curls into a ball

15. What does the dog yearn toward as the man departs after eating his lunch in Part III?
(a) The forest
(b) The cloth that the biscuits were wrapped with
(c) A snow cave
(d) The fire

Short Answer Questions

1. What refers to related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest?

2. On top of the ice of the Yukon is how many feet of snow, according to the narrator in Part I?

3. The protagonist had been out in how many cold snaps before, according to the narrator in Part II?

4. The protagonist is bound for an old claim on the left fork of what in To Build a Fire?

5. The day is described as having broken exceedingly how in the opening of To Build a Fire?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 485 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample