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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the word "rappel" most likely mean on Page 25?
(a) "Assimilate."
(b) "Descend."
(c) "Ascend."
(d) "Rise."

2. According to Ma, in Chapter 4, SEVEN, who "studies God"(13)?
(a) Priests.
(b) Good boys.
(c) Monks.
(d) Nuns.

3. How does Ma respond when Manny asks worriedly if Paps is having a heart attack in Chapter 9, TALK TO ME?
(a) "That's all there is" (40).
(b) Ma "unlaced her work boots, slipped off her socks, and massaged her feet" (40).
(c) Ma dismisses Manny.
(d) "What heart?" (41).

4. Who is incessantly calling the narrator's house at the start of Chapter 9, TALK TO ME?
(a) The narrator.
(b) Paps.
(c) Ma.
(d) Lina.

5. On the way home from the lake, the narrator reveals his brothers' ages. How old are they?
(a) Manny is 9 years old, and Joel is 7 years old.
(b) Manny is 14 years old, and Joel is 12 years old.
(c) Manny is 9 years old, and Joel is 8 years old.
(d) Manny is 10 years old, and Joel is 8 years old.

Short Answer Questions

1. At the start of Chapter 9, TALK TO ME, what does Ma cut her fingertip on?

2. What does Ma compare to the boys' faces being messy in Chapter 2, NEVER-NEVER TIME?

3. Why do the brothers have to be quiet in the mornings?

4. Whys is Ma upset that Paps gets a new truck for the family?

5. How does Ma respond to Paps worries at the end of Chapter 11, NIGHT WATCH?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do the narrator and Joel hide in a crawlspace when Paps returns home after being gone for many days?

2. Why do the brothers dig up Old Man's garden?

3. Why does Ma not want the narrator to get older like his other brothers?

4. At the end of Chapter 10, NIGHT WATCH, Paps says,"We're never going to escape this...Never" (60). What is he sure the narrator's family will not escape?

5. How do you know that the narrator and his brothers are ravenous for more life according to the first page of the novel?

6. How do you know that the novel is being written in first-person?

7. What metaphorical significance can be determined by the fact that Ma and the narrator cannot swim and hang on to Paps in order to stay afloat?

8. As the brothers hid in the bathtub, Paps and Ma pretend to not know and do not immediately come to find them. What deep fears does the narrator share about this lack of attention?

9. Why may Ma choose to call the narrator's family's new vehicle, "Big-Dick Truck"?

10. What previous incident may have led Joel to ask a pregnant woman outside a drugstore if she was tricked into having a baby?

(see the answer keys)

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