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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. What does Whittington compare making mistakes learning to read with?

2. How does Bernie react to the horses muzzling him?

3. What does Bernie give Ted in exchange for hauling his horses?

4. What does Whittington sound like the name of, to the Lady?

5. Where does Bernie put Havey after the dog's fight with Whittington?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Whittington's former owner's parents react to his reading problem?

2. What happens when the owl encounters Ben, Abby, Whittington, and the Lady?

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

4. What does Whittington the cat look like?

5. How was Whittington separated from his boy?

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

7. What happened to Abby and Ben's parents?

8. What argument does the Lady give in favor of Whittington moving into the barn?

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

10. What is Whittington and the Lady's plan to stop Havey from always chasing the duck?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Discuss love in the novel.

1) What is Dick Whittington's experience of love? How does he fall in love, and how does love affect him?

2) What different kinds of love are in the novel? How is romantic love different from parental love, the love of siblings, or the love of friendship?

3) What is the Lady's experience of love? How does love affect her?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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