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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 adjective does the narrator use to describe the Pilgrims' eagerness to share their beliefs?
(a) Bold.
(b) Dreadful.
(c) Hard-working.
(d) Fierce.

2. Toward the end of the introduction, Gregory quotes the following passage: "Question him in hell, O Muse, where he has gone, and when there is an answer, sing and make clear the reasons that he gave for that last blow. Why did he send his son into that tropic jungle and not go himself, upon so dangerous an errand?" Why does Gregory include this quote?
(a) To demonstrate that history must judge the actions of historical figures.
(b) To suggest that even Williams cannot answer all of history's questions.
(c) To prove that Walter Raleigh was a coward.
(d) To show the lyricism of Williams' prose.

3. Who tells Ponce de Leon there is a fountain of youth?
(a) One of his own men.
(b) An old woman.
(c) A child.
(d) An old man.

4. What is the overall tone of Williams' remarks about the Puritans?
(a) Jealousy.
(b) Admiration.
(c) Wonder.
(d) Contempt.

5. Who is Juan Ortiz?
(a) The leader of the Indian community that helped De Soto and his men to survive the first winter.
(b) De Soto's brother who accompanied him on the expedition and on whom De Soto relied.
(c) De Soto's commanding officer, stationed in Cuba, to whom De Soto writes letters.
(d) A Spanish soldier separated from an earlier expedition who lived with the Indians for 12 years.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Cotton Mather say that New England belonged to before the New Englanders lived there?

2. Who does the narrator say that the Puritans went on to persecute later?

3. What does Cortez think when he enters the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan?

4. What is the outcome of Freydis' actions?

5. When Champlain advocates on behalf of building a colony, what is the one personal favor he asks of the King of France?

Short Essay Questions

1. Does Williams blame Cortez for what happened to Tenochtitlan?

2. Why do the Puritan leaders think that Thomas Morton should not barter in guns or liquor?

3. What does the narrator of "Sir Walter Raleigh" imply when he exhorts the Muse to sing of "the pursuit of beauty and the husk that remains," or when he says that Raleigh's England became "a mouthful of smoke sucked from the embers of a burnt weed"?

4. How do Columbus' voyages east, returning to Spain, differ from his voyages west, heading to the New World?

5. How is Morton treated by his captors?

6. What was Aaron Burr like, according to Williams?

7. Why did the English put a price on Pire Rasles' head? Why did they want him killed?

8. How does the cacique of Quigaltam react when De Soto tells him that De Soto is the "child of the sun" and must be obeyed and offered tribute?

9. How did enslaved Africans react to the Christian religion, according to Williams?

10. Why does Ponce de Leon forget his dog when he is driven away from Guadaloupe?

(see the answer keys)

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