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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. Blue Elk sees Bessie Black Bull leaving the store on her second trip and steals what from her?

2. After Tom Black Bull's injury heals they go to Colorado, but his instructor is unable to pull the con, so what happens?

3. What happens with George Black Bull's body?

4. When Tom Black Bull lets some animals get ill eating green corn, he is put back in the barn for how long before he goes to the horses?

5. What is Blue Elk impressed to learn about Tom Black Bull?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Tom Black Bull manage as he rides the rodeo circuit the summer following Red Dillon's death?

2. Why does Tom Black accept the job offer from Jim Woodward?

3. What is printed about Tom Black in the newspaper when he rides in Madison Square Garden?

4. What are some reasons Tom Black decides that he must return to the rodeo?

5. What is happening to Tom Black Bull under Red Dillon's control that is frustrating him?

6. What transpires during Tom Black Bull's discussion with the doctor following Meo's passing?

7. How does Tom come to be called Bear's Brother?

8. What are the 'old ways' Bessie Black Bull teaches Tom as they escape Pagosa and flee into Horse Mountain to link up with her husband, George?

9. What happens when Tom Black Bull takes more than 700 dollars from Red Dillon?

10. How do Red Dillon and Tom Black Bull exercise their con at the Bernalillo rodeo?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 42, Tom accepts a simple job of shepherding when he comes back to Pagosa to recover. When he is alone with the sheep, what is he surprised by? What are the memories that flood back? How does he adjust to the simple life as he recuperates and makes plans to return to the rodeo?

Essay Topic 2

Roundness of life is a significant theme in this story. It unfolds through Bessie Black Bull, who maintains the 'old ways' and instructs them to Tom. What is it the reader learns to look for with this theme? How does the concept of continuation within all life tie in with this 'roundness' theme? Detail the method Bessie uses to teach this intrinsic truth concerning nature.

Essay Topic 3

What does the introductory poem summarize? What about the American Indians' demise? What about the troubled course of this story's main character into manhood?

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