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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What Indian dish is on the fire that looks like hominy at the dugout in Chapter 6?

2. What does the Indian wife at the store cook for Mattie, LaBoeuf and Rooster Cogburn for dinner in Chapter 6?

3. What color hair is Ranger LaBoeuf described as having in Chapter 4?

4. In Mattie’s letter from Lawyer Daggett in Chapter 5, he tells her that who is “down with an earache”?

5. Colonel Stonehill tells Mattie that he has a tentative offer for the ponies of ten dollars per head from whom in Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. What concerns does LaBoeuf voice about the campfire when the group first stops for the night in Chapter 6?

2. How is the “dugout” described when Mattie, Rooster, and LaBoeuf arrive there in Chapter 6?

3. What is Mattie’s reply when LaBoeuf asks her who she has hired to hunt down Tom Chaney in Chapter 4?

4. What is Rooster Cogburn’s response when he hears of the reward offered for Tom Chaney by the state of Texas?

5. What is LaBoeuf’s reply when Mattie asks him why Tom Chaney supposedly shot a Texas senator?

6. How does Mattie describe Ranger LaBoeuf’s appearance when he arrives at the Monarch boarding house in Chapter 4?

7. How does Mattie describe the pony she picks out to purchase at Stonehill’s barn in Chapter 5? What does she remark about his legs?

8. What “grub” has Rooster Cogburn brought along for the trip, according to Mattie in Chapter 6?

9. What is Colonel Stonehill’s demeanor like when Mattie goes to see him with the paperwork in the beginning of Chapter 5?

10. What are the boys doing outside the store when Mattie, LaBoeuf, and Rooster arrive in the beginning of Chapter 6?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and analyze the character of Colonel Stonehill in True Grit. Why is Colonel Stonehill reluctant to make a deal with Mattie? How does Mattie effectively press Stonehill in order to obtain her objectives? How does the character of Stonehill change in the course of the narrative?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Rooster’s failed marriage and his relationship with his son as detailed in the narrative. How did Rooster feel about his son? What does he admit regarding their relationship? Do you think that Rooster’s relationship with Mattie in the story is an attempt to make up for Rooster’s failings with his son?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the history of the Texas Ranger Division. What role did the Texas Rangers play in the American Civil War? Why have so many works of literature and film revolved around Texas Rangers? What impressions does Mattie have of LaBoeuf’s fancy “getup”?

(see the answer keys)

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