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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. "Hester at her WHAT" is the title of Chapter 5?
(a) Bedside.
(b) Confession.
(c) Needle.
(d) Wit's End.

2. What street runs outside the Custom-House?
(a) Main Street.
(b) High Street.
(c) Derby Street.
(d) Salem Road.

3. How does Hester dress her daughter?
(a) In "infinite variety."
(b) In the "richest tissue."
(c) In "rustic weeds."
(d) In "paler loveliness."

4. What color is the thread that embroiders the scarlet letter?
(a) Silver.
(b) Black.
(c) Red.
(d) Gold.

5. How many years after the founding of Boston does Chapter 1 take place?
(a) Approximately 15 or 20.
(b) Approximately 150 or more.
(c) Approximately 90 or 100.
(d) Approximately 50 or 60.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why do most Puritans fast, according to the narrator?

2. The following description of someone's eyes in Chapter 10 refers to which character: "burning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace....like one of those gleams of ghastly fire"?

3. Where is Hester when she and Pearl are examined by the doctor?

4. Which character is described as having a "wildflower prettiness?"

5. Which description does not apply to Dimmesdale?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Dimmesdale not see through Chillingworth and understand his true (nefarious) agenda, according to the narrator in Chapter 10?

2. What happens to Hester when the jailer introduces Chillingworth?

3. Describe what Hawthorne's narrator thinks of Reverend Dimmesdale's voice.

4. What is Hawthorne's emotional state in the preface?

5. What does Hester refuse to do during this chapter 3, despite pressure from her neighbors?

6. What does Chillingworth implore Hester to do when they meet in the jail?

7. Does Hawthorne, in the end, decide to change anything?

8. What does Hawthorne promise to "alter or expunge"?

9. What has happened to the original spirit of the town of Salem, as in, to the legacy of the original founders?

10. In Chapter 2, why might it be Mistress Hibbins who would be in the jail?

(see the answer keys)

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