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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 happens when Bridget Bishop attempts to plead not guilty?
(a) She is allowed to speak on her own behalf.
(b) She is convicted of gross lying in the court.
(c) She is denied the chance to hear the witnesses against her.
(d) She is tortured until she confesses.

2. Why does Cortez finally burn the city?
(a) To destroy a place which would have given refuge to the forces that were opposing him.
(b) To give glory to the Christian God by destroying temples full of idols.
(c) To demoralize the Aztecs so that they would stop resisting him so fiercely.
(d) To kill the inhabitants of the city who were trapped inside.

3. How does Freydis handle her quarrel with the two brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi?
(a) She steals property from the brothers and refuses to give it back, claiming that it will compensate her for the quarrel.
(b) She tricks her husband into killing them, and kills the women of their household herself.
(c) She talks to her neighbors about the brothers, turning the community against them until they are forced into exile.
(d) She goes to court against the brothers and sues them, winning her case and forcing them to pay a fine.

4. What does Gregory say about the way in which the reputation of In the American Grain grew?
(a) It became more popular after Williams died.
(b) It became more popular when it was published in a magazine.
(c) It became more popular when it was marketed more aggressively.
(d) It became more popular as it was falling out of print.

5. What does Williams think was the motive of the person who told Ponce de Leon there was a fountain of youth?
(a) Revenge.
(b) A desire to help.
(c) Storytelling.
(d) Love.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the following sentence mean? "Rather the ice than their way: to take what is mine by single strength, theirs by the crookedness of their law."

2. What does Cotton Mather think about the gods of the Indian nations?

3. Which chapter does Gregory say is in some ways the product of the era in which it was written?

4. What happens to Thomas Morton as a result of the Maypole celebration?

5. How does the narrator describe the descendants of the Puritans?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Williams say is the reason Americans focus on science and inventions?

2. What were some of the dangers faced by sailors on ships during a battle at sea?

3. What is the one moral failing that Williams mentions that George Washington has? How does this failing affect Washington?

4. What role does Williams say that Edgar Allen Poe plays in American literature?

5. Why does Ponce de Leon send women ashore when he first arrives in Guadaloupe?

6. What is Champlain's reaction to hearing that there will be an attempt on his life?

7. In his letter to Benjamin Franklin, why does John Paul Jones keep bringing up the conduct of Captain Landais?

8. What were the markets like in Tenochtitlan?

9. What does William Carlos Williams think of Eric the Red? What kind of person does he think Eric is?

10. How did Williams think that bodily suffering affected the Pilgrims?

(see the answer keys)

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