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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Ma wear for the family's first drive in the truck?
(a) A short black skirt with high heels.
(b) Her work boots and a house dress.
(c) Ma refuses to go on the first drive.
(d) A red dress and gold hoop earrings.

2. How does Old Man tell the brothers to cure their "skeet bites" (35)?
(a) Cut a cross on the bites with their fingernails.
(b) Leave the bites alone to heal.
(c) Put a special lotion he has on the bites.
(d) Spit on their bites.

3. What does the narrator hope Paps and Ma will do after the brothers' hide from them in Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME?
(a) Dance around the bathroom and never find the brothers.
(b) Find the brothers and embrace them.
(c) Leave the bathroom and never fight again.
(d) Paps will kiss Ma and then hug the brothers.

4. Why does Paps most likely give the brothers a bath when he arrives at home in Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME??
(a) Because he is up late and has nothing else to do.
(b) As disingenuous proof he cares about family.
(c) Because he thinks they are dirty and need it.
(d) As a sign that he loves them and is home to stay.

5. What simile is used to compare Paps' shouting on Page 23?
(a) Paps' shouting is compared to a mad scientist.
(b) Paps' shouting is compared to a bobbing mass.
(c) Paps' shouting is compared to black-green murkiness.
(d) Paps' shouting is compared to a marvel of his creation.

6. Why are grocery stores and banks closed when Ma takes her sons to run errands?
(a) Because it is the middle of the night.
(b) Because they closed down before the family arrives.
(c) because it is Sunday.
(d) Because it is a holiday.

7. At the start of the narrative, what age does the narrator turn?
(a) 8.
(b) The narrator does not have a birthday.
(c) 7.
(d) 14.

8. Where does Ma work?
(a) The brewery up the hill.
(b) A clothing store in the city.
(c) As a housekeeper at a hotel.
(d) Ma does not work.

9. What does Lina bring with her to the narrator's house?
(a) A message from the boss.
(b) Money.
(c) A pink slip from work.
(d) Groceries.

10. According Chapter 5, THE LAKE, who is the only one in the family allowed to say he/she is scared?
(a) Ma.
(b) Joel.
(c) The narrator.
(d) Manny.

11. Where is Lina from?
(a) The drugstore.
(b) New York.
(c) China.
(d) The paper mill.

12. Who is Paps listening to the radio when the boys come home after school in Chapter 3, THE HERITAGE (8)?
(a) An old band the boys have never heard before.
(b) Tito Puente.
(c) Hector Puente.
(d) Maria Constatine.

13. What are Ma and Paps doing in the bathroom while the brothers bathe in Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME??
(a) Ma is doing her make-up, and Paps is fixing the plumbing.
(b) Arguing about money.
(c) Flirting and playing with each other.
(d) Ma and Paps are both washing the boys.

14. What do the brothers find in the crawlspace at the end of Chapter 9, TALK TO ME?
(a) An old yellow phone.
(b) Their old clothes and toys.
(c) A gun.
(d) A box of old photos of Ma and Paps.

15. In the crawlspace, the narrator asks Joel, "It's just going to be like this forever?" (43). What is the narrator referring to?
(a) The family being poor and not able to support themselves.
(b) The brothers always being spanked after school.
(c) Paps' abusive ways and how they will get out of the situation.
(d) Ma and Paps' relationship and it affects their situation and futures.

Short Answer Questions

1. What role does the narrator play in the "magic of God" (25)?

2. What does Ma ask her sons to squirt on her face when they run out of the original ingredient(s)?

3. At the start of Chapter 9, TALK TO ME, what does Ma cut her fingertip on?

4. How does the narrator know that Ma is delighted when Paps returns at the start of Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME?

5. Why is it unusual that Paps knows how to swim?

(see the answer keys)

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