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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 last line in the Quote before the Title Page say about how boys should be treated?
(a) Boys are wild beasts and hard to manage.
(b) Boys are smart and wild.
(c) Boys should be bonded with many chains.
(d) Boys need to be punished when they disobey.

2. When the boys' father, Paps, comes home, how does he punish his sons?
(a) Paps yells at his sons for hours.
(b) Paps does not speak to his sons.
(c) Paps spanks his sons.
(d) Paps makes the sons mow the lawn.

3. At the start of the novel, how many boys, also brothers, are introduced?
(a) 4.
(b) 2.
(c) 3.
(d) 6.

4. Why do the brothers have to go with Paps to work in Chapter 11, NIGHT WATCH?
(a) Because Ma is asleep at home, and they will wake her.
(b) Because Ma is working too, and no one is at home to watch them.
(c) Because Paps is afraid the boys will get in trouble.
(d) Because Paps needs extra help.

5. What explanation does Paps say to his sons about Ma's swollen purple cheeks?
(a) Ma was in a bad car accident and hit her face on the steering wheel.
(b) Ma got into a fight at work with Lina, her co-worker.
(c) Ma was punched in the face by the dentist to loosen her teeth before pulling them.
(d) Ma fell down the stairs when she was drunk.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is Lina from?

2. At the start of Chapter 6, US PROPER, what do the three brothers create by stacking up on one another's shoulders?

3. What do the brothers do with the baby robins that they find in the woods?

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

5. What role does the narrator play in the "magic of God" (25)?

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. How does the narrator differentiate the brothers' behavior in relation to when Ma is awake or asleep?

3. What personality traits and behaviors are both implicitly and explicitly conveyed through the description of the brothers' behaviors in the opening Chapters? How do you come to these conclusions?

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

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. At the start of Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME, how does Paps show an expression of regret when he returns to the family's home?

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

9. Having the knowledge of Ma's grueling work schedule and unstable behavior, why might the narrator say after Ma awakes confused, "It was a Sunday, but no one told Ma that" (5)?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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