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Multiple-Choice
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Multiple-Choice Mini-Test:
Mark Twain:
from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Answers and Explanation:
ANSWERS TO
TWAIN: Be sure to read the explanations to begin to
understand the rationale used for determining right answers on multiple-choice
tests.
1. D
4. C
7. B
10. B
2. E
5. D
8. B
11. D
3. B
6. D
9. A
EXPLANATIONS FOR THE ANSWERS:
1. (D) Pap was the one who "had no more quality than
a mudcat." Huck did feel that the children of
aristocratic families all minded their manners (A); aristocratic
men were all well-born gentlemen (B); no
one of the aristocracy had reddish complexions (C); and that
the aristocratic people always entertained
stacks of people (E).
2. (E) The Widow Douglas was one of the first aristocracy of
Huck's town, so she is similar to the colonel.
All other choices are effective contrasts used by Twain to show theme.
3. (B) Choice III shows Twain's descriptive power, but only
choices I and II have exaggeration. Twain's
use of the superlative ending "est," and various extreme words like "high"
and "heavy" and "every day"
signal his intent to exaggerate here.
4. (C) The fact that Huck felt like running away
when the colonel "straightened himself up like a liberty
pole" makes this the most negative description of all the choices.
Words like "kind" which instilled
"confidence" (A), "smiled" which felt "good" (B), "everybody
was always good mannered where he
was" (D) and "loved" and "sunshine" (E) all describe Huck's
positive assessment of the colonel.
5. (D) Even though good-mannered is probably two words, not
hyphenated as Twain likes to do with so
many words, "warn't" (A) and "clean-shaved" (C)_ are grammatically
incorrect, and "frivolishness" (B)
and "round about" (E) are slang words. These other choice are all used
to show Huck's dialect.
6. (D) Huck makes no mention of Superstition in this
passage. One of the reasons this excerpt is so
well-written is the fact that it alludes to so many of Twain's themes:
(A) Slavery- "The old man owned
"over a hundred niggers" (B) Money - The colonel's "blue-tail
coat with brass buttons, " his" mahogany
cane with a silver head" and his ownership of "a lot of farms" equate money
with aristocracy. (C)
Manners - "The aristocracy were "good-mannered" but they carried guns to
church. (E) Child Abuse-
The fact that Huck at times "wanted to climb a tree first, and find out
what the matter was afterwards"
indicated his mistrust of adults because of their past abuse of him.
7. (B) The mention of guns at the end of this passage is an
excellent example of an unexplained
inconsistency in the Grangerford family habits that foreshadows their involvement
in a bloody feud with the
Shepherdsons.
8. (B) He had "the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so deep that they
seemed like they was looking out of caverns
at you, as you might say. His forehead was high, and his hair was
gray and straight and hung to his
shoulders" are some of the many details chosen by Twain to give the reader
a physical sense of the colonel's
presence.
9. (A) Twain's choice of a naive narrator who knows less
about life than the reader, whose opinions are
that of a child, makes this story a powerful story. All other choice
are types of narration that are available
to the writer, but not chosen here by Twain.
10. (B) This passage exaggerates the characteristics
of the colonel from the subjective view of a naive
narrator. It is never pedantic , preachy, or humorless (A) or
elevated in language (C). Although Twain's
language may be concise (D. terse) and witty (E), it is
not epigrammatic (filled with adages) or analytical.
11. (D) The emotional judgement of the narrator is influenced
by his lack of experience with aristocracy.
Huck never shows pity (A), objectivity (B), sardonic
(sarcastic or scornful) condemnation (C), or jaded
(overworn) disgust (E).
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