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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the protagonist plan to remove by the fire to dry in Part IV?
(a) His coat
(b) His hat
(c) His watch
(d) His footgear

2. In describing the protagonist’s thought of death in Part VI, the narrator states: “Sometimes it pushed itself forward and demanded to be heard, but he thrust it back and strove to think of other things.” This is an example of what literary technique?
(a) Irony
(b) Personification
(c) Alliteration
(d) Assonance

3. Which word used to describe the protagonist in Part V means having or showing little or no emotion?
(a) Appreciate
(b) Flounder
(c) Ancestry
(d) Apathetic

4. What does the protagonist do once the fire is a success and he remembers the advice of the old-timer in Part IV?
(a) He scowls
(b) He laughs
(c) He cries
(d) He smiles

5. What drug does the protagonist compare to the onset of death in Part VI?
(a) Psychedelic
(b) Barbiturate
(c) Narcotic
(d) Anesthetic

6. Which word describing the protagonist in Part VI means to struggle with stumbling or plunging movements?
(a) Manipulation
(b) Flounder
(c) Apprehension
(d) Recoil

7. When the protagonist falls a second time and the dog sits in front of him, how does the protagonist feel about the “warmth and security of the animal” in Part VI?
(a) Jealous
(b) Angered
(c) Sickened
(d) Content

8. The story, although not directly stated, is suggested to take place during what time period?
(a) 1920s
(b) 1940s
(c) 1890s
(d) 1850s

9. The protagonist thinks to himself as he dies in Part VI, “When he got back to the States he could tell the folks” what?
(a) About the rugged north
(b) Where he had lost his fingers
(c) What real cold was
(d) How he was a survivor

10. When the protagonist’s second fire fails, he decides to attempt to do what with the dog?
(a) Kill it
(b) Follow it
(c) Feed it
(d) Send it for help

11. According to the narrator in Part VI, the protagonist’s plan of running until he reaches camp has one flaw in it. What is this flaw?
(a) Darkness is setting in
(b) He has to cross a river
(c) The snow is too deep
(d) He lacks the endurance

12. What other word does the narrator use for sulphur in Part V?
(a) Keystone
(b) Sparkstone
(c) Brimstone
(d) Thermastone

13. What element of the story is omitted in the earlier version of To Build a Fire?
(a) The old-timer
(b) The knife
(c) The cold
(d) The dog

14. What simile occurs to the protagonist regarding his behavior in panicking in Part VI?
(a) Like shooting fish in a barrel
(b) Running around like a chicken with its head cut off
(c) Burning like a meteor
(d) Going dark like a grand eclipse

15. In order to build a fire, the protagonist must do what in Part IV?
(a) Remove his moccasins
(b) Remove his coat
(c) Remove his mittens
(d) Remove his watch

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the dog go in the end of the story?

2. At what age did Jack London quit school to work in a cannery and as a longshoreman?

3. Part V of the story marks what point in the plot structure?

4. The narrator states in Part V that the dog looks to the protagonist as what?

5. Which word from Part IV means to be grateful or thankful?

(see the answer keys)

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