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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 was Mathu always bragging about?

2. What did the coach need to tell Gil?

3. What did Miss Merle see when she turned into the quarters?

4. What does Bea need before she will think of more names?

5. Who was Tessie?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Mat and Chimley wait before they took action?

2. Why did Chimley not mind if black people called him by his nickhame, but hated it when white people used his nickname?

3. What did it mean when they saw dust on the road? What was this a symbol of?

4. What was the nature of the relationship between Candy and Lou?

5. Who are the Major and Miss Bea?

6. What color was the dress Corrine wore and the color of the bedspread used to cover the body? Why is this important?

7. Why did Mapes hit the men and what did it mean? When everybody lined up to be hit by Mapes, what happened?

8. What was Johnny Paul talking about when he talked to Mapes about what he couldn't see?

9. How do readers know the year this story is taking place?

10. Why did Mathu look down on some of the men who came to help him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which characters do you think changed the most and the least in this story. Why? What made them change or not change?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss man vs. machine. The tractors vs. mules. How had life on the plantation changed due to this invention?

Essay Topic 3

Compare Miss Merle and Charlie. How do they represent the past, present and future? What would they like their world's to look like? What will change in Miss Merle's world after the events of the story? How will the friends of Charlie's be changed by his death?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 596 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample