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

2. Where do the brothers hide after their bath in Chapter 10, YOU BETTER COME?
(a) The bathtub.
(b) Ma and Paps' bedroom.
(c) The attic.
(d) The crawlspace.

3. How does Ma respond when Manny asks worriedly if Paps is having a heart attack in Chapter 9, TALK TO ME?
(a) "What heart?" (41).
(b) Ma "unlaced her work boots, slipped off her socks, and massaged her feet" (40).
(c) "That's all there is" (40).
(d) Ma dismisses Manny.

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

5. How does the narrator know Paps and Ma are fighting when Paps returns home in Chapter 9, TALK TO ME?
(a) Paps is shouting.
(b) He hears them stomping around and furniture tumbling.
(c) The narrator is in the kitchen and can hear Ma crying.
(d) He can hear them outside on the porch.

Short Answer Questions

1. What metaphor does the narrator use at the end of Page 27 about the pregnant woman's response to the brothers?

2. What do Paps and Ma do in the bathroom as described on Page 48?

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

4. At the start of the novel, how many boys, also brothers, are introduced?

5. What does Ma say to Paps on the way home from the lake?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do you know that the narrator and his brothers are ravenous for more life according to the first page of the novel?

2. How does Paps coerce Ma into not being so irate about about the new truck?

3. How does the narrator feel when Paps and Ma discover him after the narrator nearly drowns in the lake?

4. Why is the narrator confused when Ma asks him why he is unable to swim in Chapter 5, LAKE?

5. How come Ma does not answer Paps' phone calls in Chapter 9, TALK TO ME?

6. What kind of support does Lina provide to the narrator's family when she comes to visit?

7. Why may Ma choose to call the narrator's family's new vehicle, "Big-Dick Truck"?

8. After Ma asks the brothers if they think it is funny when men beat women, the narrator retreats to a window and looks into he sun and says, "I could not blind myself" (16). How does this statement contribute to the nature of the narrator's desires?

9. What personality traits and behaviors are both implicitly and explicitly conveyed through the description of the brothers' behaviors in the opening Chapters? How do you come to these conclusions?

10. Why do the brothers dig up Old Man's garden?

(see the answer keys)

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