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

2. How does Old Man tell the brothers to cure their "skeet bites" (35)?
(a) Cut a cross on the bites with their fingernails.
(b) Spit on their bites.
(c) Put a special lotion he has on the bites.
(d) Leave the bites alone to heal.

3. What tool do the boys use to smash the tomatoes?
(a) A stick.
(b) A big rock.
(c) A hammer.
(d) A mallet.

4. Why do the brothers run their fingers around the empty bowls in Chapter 9, TALK TO ME?
(a) Because they are so hungry and want all the food there is left.
(b) Because they are angry all the food is gone.
(c) Because there is excess frosting left in the bowls.
(d) Because they are curious what the food tastes like.

5. At the start of Chapter 9, TALK TO ME, what does Ma cut her fingertip on?
(a) The edge of a soup can.
(b) A metal toy.
(c) A broken beer bottle.
(d) A piece of glass.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ma ask her sons to squirt on her face when they run out of the original ingredient(s)?

2. What do the brothers ask strangers to buy them outside the drugstore in Chapter 5, US PROPER?

3. Where has Ma seen the "most water she ever saw in one place" (19)?

4. What color is the family's new truck?

5. Where is Lina from?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator feel when Paps and Ma discover him after the narrator nearly drowns in the lake?

2. How does Paps coerce Ma into not being so irate about about the new truck?

3. After Ma asks the brothers if they think it is funny when men beat women, the narrator retreats to a window and looks into he sun and says, "I could not blind myself" (16). How does this statement contribute to the nature of the narrator's desires?

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

5. How does the reader know that Ma was a naive teenager when it came to sex as explained in Chapter 6, US PROPER?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. Why is the narrator confused when Ma asks him why he is unable to swim in Chapter 5, LAKE?

9. What kind of support does Lina provide to the narrator's family when she comes to visit?

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

(see the answer keys)

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