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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. While trying to read a psalm, what does Ben pronounce instead of "death"?

2. What type of goods does Fitzwarren sell?

3. What did Bernie forget to do to the horses?

4. Where do the bantams roost when not sitting on eggs?

5. What do the horses use to bathe themselves?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the dream Dick Whittington has about London?

2. What happens that causes Dick Whittington's cat to vow vengeance on a rat?

3. What are the first two horses that Bernie buys?

4. In the fable the Lady tells, what does the rat save the lion from?

5. What trouble does Ben have with the first word he learns?

6. What does the Lady tell Whittington about the horses, when Whittington first arrives in the barn?

7. What worries Abby about the chickens' spring eating habits?

8. How does Whittington take his bath?

9. How did Will Price get his scar?

10. What is the one warm spot outside the barn during the snowy winter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the settings in the novel.

1) What role does the barn play as a setting in the novel? How does the setting of the barn affect the story and the reader's experience?

2) What role does London play as a setting in the novel? How is the time and place of Dick Whittington's life contrasted with the barn?

3) What other settings affect the novel, such as exotic Tripoli, and the reading program classroom?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss illness and injury in the novel.

1) How do the characters deal with illness in the novel? What ways do characters try to combat or prevent illness or injury?

2) What causes illness? To what extent is illness something that can be controlled?

3) How do characters help each other when they are ill or injured? What do experiences with illness or injury say about the characters' relationships?

Essay Topic 3

Grief and loss are important issues that the characters in the novel face. Discuss grief and loss.

1) How do Ben and Abby deal with their grief over the loss of their mother and father? How do they react to loss and how does loss affect them?

2) How does Dick Whittington react to loss, including the losses from the plague, his sense of loss of his home, the loss of Mary, and the loss of his cat? How does loss affect him?

3) How do other characters, including the Lady and Whittington, deal with loss?

(see the answer keys)

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