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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Brother treat Doodle roughly when he first starts taking him outside in his cart?
(a) He is still trying to hurt Doodle because Doodle embarrasses him.
(b) He is too young to understand how delicate Doodle is.
(c) Doodle annoys him by asking constant questions.
(d) He wants Doodle to stop asking to come with him.

2. Who uses a book to find the name of the ibis?
(a) Daddy.
(b) Mama.
(c) Doodle.
(d) Aunt Nicey.

3. What evidence is there that Brother is pushing Doodle too hard?
(a) Doodle begins to have nose bleeds.
(b) Doodle becomes feverish and has nightmares.
(c) Doodle begins to have trouble breathing.
(d) Doodle talks less and seems confused at times.

4. In the first sentence of the story, what meaning does "clove" have in "It was in the clove of seasons" (1)?
(a) The past tense of "cleave."
(b) The space between the two parts of an animal's hoof.
(c) One section of a bulb of garlic.
(d) A dried flower bud that is also a spice.

5. What do the "strange names" (8) talked about at the family dinner party allude to?
(a) They are the names of family members buried in the family graveyard.
(b) They are the locations of World War I battles.
(c) They are the neighbor families who have lost children in World War I.
(d) They are the places that the family plans to travel in Europe.

6. What are Doodle's last words?
(a) "Don't leave me!"
(b) "I love you."
(c) "Don't hurt me!"
(d) "I told you."

7. What does Mama notice about the ibis?
(a) It is not frightened of the family.
(b) It is clearly dying.
(c) It seems to have a broken wing.
(d) It seems focused on Doodle.

8. What kind of tree is in Brother's yard when he is a child?
(a) One with medicinal bark.
(b) One with red flowers.
(c) One with thorns.
(d) One with cloudy sap.

9. What does Brother compare Doodle to when he finds Doodle dead?
(a) A crashed kite.
(b) The scarlet ibis.
(c) Himself.
(d) Aunt Nicey.

10. Who does Doodle suggest that Brother can marry?
(a) Their neighbor.
(b) Their mother.
(c) Their aunt.
(d) Their father.

11. When Brother says that the smell of the graveyard flowers is coming through their windows and "speaking softy the names of our dead" (1), this is an example of which literary technique?
(a) Hyperbole.
(b) Understatement.
(c) Euphemism.
(d) Personification.

12. When Brother picks Doodle up, trying to teach him to walk, and Doodle falls to the ground, what does Doodle say?
(a) "I can do it."
(b) "I'll tell Mama."
(c) "Don't hurt me, Brother."
(d) "I told you so."

13. What deadline do Doodle and Brother set for Doodle's physical training?
(a) They want to be done by the time Doodle starts school.
(b) They want to be done by springtime.
(c) They want to be done by Doodle's seventh birthday.
(d) They want to be done by Christmas.

14. When is the story being told?
(a) Immediately after the events of the story take place.
(b) Some years after the events of the story take place.
(c) In the winter, after Doodle dies.
(d) At the end of Brother's life.

15. What causes Brother to say that Doodle is a "burden in many ways" (3)?
(a) The doctor has made a long list of rules for taking care of Doodle.
(b) Doodle is getting too heavy for Brother to pull in the cart.
(c) Doodle talks almost all the time.
(d) Brother's friends make fun of Doodle.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Brother respond to Doodle's love for natural beauty?

2. When the family sees Doodle struggling to bury the ibis, what is their response?

3. Why does Brother think that it is a good thing for Doodle to have a silly name?

4. When Brother comments that "Hope no longer hid in the dark palmetto thicket but perched like a cardinal in the lacy toothbrush tree, brilliantly visible" (3), what two literary techniques are being used?

5. What is the first problem the family's crops have in the year that Brother is training Doodle?

(see the answer keys)

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