damnit!

i forgot to post anything yesterday. i meant to after school, but it completely slipped my mind, and then i went to a friend's party and didn't get home until late. then i spent a good chunk of today sleeping--a combination of staying up late last night and getting up early this week.

this is going to count as yesterday's post, and i'll do another one right after it.

so, here's my scarlet letter test, which adriane requested. heidi - you'll get my brave new world test--it's better than my Gatsby test.

The Scarlet Letter - Test

American Lit Honors

Part I: Multiple Choice

For each of the following questions, choose the best response

1. The prison door best represents which of the following:

a. Puritanical severity of law and the authority of the regime

b. a dirty, rusted old door separating Hester from her daughter

c. an escape route for Hester

d. the strength of Hester’s determination to live with her crime

2. Hawthorne’s portrayal of the Puritanical society is one of:

a. support for the Puritan way of life

b. contradictory images and hypocrisy

c. disgust with the Puritan way of life

d. he does not portray the Puritanical society

3. What gesture does Reverend Dimmesdale make throughout the book?

a. He rubs at his brow

b. He pulls at his shirt sleeves

c. He places his hand over his heart

d. He raises his eyes to heaven

4. Why is the first scaffold scene very ironic?

a. Because Hester is married to Chillingworth and he has just arrived.

b. Because it is the first time that Hester has come into public wearing the scarlet “A” on her chest.

c. Because Dimmesdale is called upon to ask Hester who the father is.

d. Because it’s like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife.

5. After she is released from prison, Hester goes to live on the edge of the forest. What does the forest symbolize?

a. how dirty she is

b. life outside Puritan law

c. her loneliness

d. her damnation

6. What does Pearl best represent throughout the novel?

a. The living embodiment of Hester’s sin

b. The unifying force that will bring Hester and Dimmesdale together at the end.

c. A young innocent child

b. A form of punishment for Hester

7. When Reverend Wilson asks Pearl who her maker is at the governor’s house, Pearl replies:

a. that God made her

b. that Hester and Dimmesdale made her

c. that sin made her

d. that she was plucked off a rose bush

8. Hester tries to convince Dimmesdale to do what during their walk in the woods?

a. to run away and live elsewhere

b. to get rid of Chillingworth

c. to marry her

d. to adopt Pearl

9. What does Pearl do when she first sees her mother without the scarlet letter?

a. She is excited for her mother

b. She screams and refuses to come near

c. She runs away

d. She runs to hug her mother

10. What does Pearl do right before Dimmesdale dies?

a. She takes his hand and gives it to Hester

b. She kisses Dimmesdale

c. She runs away from Hester

c. She runs to Roger Chillingworth

11. Chillingworth became the greatest sinner in violating the human heart because:

a. he felt the church should have avenged him

b. he single-mindedly was bent on personal revenge against Dimmesdale

c. he burned a scarlet letter into Dimmesdale’s chest with a hot iron

d. he neglected his young wife

12. What happens to Pearl at the end of the story?

a. she dies the same day that Dimmesdale confesses.

b. She is left a lot of money by Chillingworth, and leaves town, never to be heard from again.

c. She is forced to wear a lower-case “a” on her chest, for she is the daughter of Hester.

d. she becomes the first female mayor of Salem

13. What is the setting of The Scarlet Letter?

a. Salem, Massachusetts in 1692

b. New York City in 1854

c. London, England in 1703

d. Boston, Massachusetts in 1652

14. Pearl is

a. physically unattractive

b. subdued and repressed

c. mentally dull

d. active, with a developed imagination

15. The living sermon against sin is

a. Chillingworth

b. Hester

c. Dimmesdale

d. Pearl

16. Chillingworth states that a minister’s soul must be burdened because it only shares its secrets with

a. other ministers

b. God

c. his congregation

d. himself

17. The “Man in Black” in the forest refers to

a. God

b. the devil

c. Chillingworth

d. Will Smith

18. “This is my strength. It is my passport to the wild, free, lawless regions where others dare not tread.” Hester is referring to

a. the ship she hopes will take her away with her lover

b. Dimmesdale

c. herself

d. the scarlet letter

19. The usual punishment for adultery in the Puritan setting was

a. public display of the offender

b. wearing of the scarlet “A”

c. serving the townspeople in charitable way

d. death by hanging

20. The dark leaves which Chillingworth found in the graveyard grew out of the dead man’s

a. soul

b. heart

c. eternal sin

d. brain

21. All of the following are Puritan children’s games except

a. scalping the Indians

b. playing house

c. going to church

d. scourging the Quakers

22. For how many years did Dimmesdale suffer?

a. five

b. seven

c. nine

d. eleven

23. What significant thing happens to Pearl when Dimmesdale confesses?

a. she dies

b. she ceases to be a symbol

c. she becomes a symbol for Dimmesdale’s death

d. she stops speaking

24. Why do the Puritans discount the evidence which proves that Mistress Hibbins is a witch?

a. she’s too nice to be evil

b. she always has an alibi

c. it doesn’t fit into their view of the world

d. it doesn’t make any difference to them.

25. In chapter 1, Hawthorne states that the first two sites developed by a new society are the prison and the cemetery. What is the significance of this?

a. it shows how depressing the Puritans were

b. it illustrates how evil humans are

c. it foreshadows the punishment and death in the novel

d. it foreshadows that everyone will die

26. Which of the following is NOT a reason Hester stays in that city?

a. she feels a connection to Dimmesdale

b. to show the people there that they have no power over her

c. something big happened there, so she has to stay

d. she knows her reputation will follow her wherever she goes

27. When Pearl and Hester look at their reflection in the breastplate on the suit of armor, what two things are enlarged?

a. The “A” and Pearl’s naughty smile

b. The “A” and Pearl’s mysterious eyes

c. The “A” and Pearl’s red dress

d. Hester’s kind eyes and Pearl’s crooked nose

28. Why is this reflection significant?

a. They’re the things the townspeople don’t see

b. They’re the only things the townspeople see

c. They’re the things everyone but the townspeople see

d. none of the above

29. During their conversation in the prison, Chillingworth tells Hester that he will find Pearl’s father by “looking into his heart.” Based on your knowledge of the rest of the novel, this is an example of:

a. symbolism

b. metaphor

c. indirect characterization

d. foreshadowing

30. When Pearl asks Hester about the A, Hester says she wears it for its pretty gold thread. What is significant about this episode?

a. It’s the first time Pearl heard about the Black Man

b. It’s the first time she’s lied about the “A.”

c. It’s the first time Pearl noticed the “A.”

d. It’s the first time she’s let Pearl touch the “A.”

31. What happens when Hester takes off the “A” in the forest?

a. Pearl laughs at her

b. she feels guilty

c. the sun shines on her

d. the wind picks up

32. What is the significance of that event (in reference to #31)?

a. nothing, Pearl is just a brat

b. Hester really does care what the Puritans think of her, despite what she tells herself

c. Nature respects and appreciates Hester’s relationship with Dimmesdale, and is happy that she’s being true to herself

d. Nature hates her relationship with Dimmesdale, and is angry that she’s going against the law.

33. Which of the following is not an example of the Puritans’ tendency to place people in categories and leave them there no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary?

a. The sexton saying the Devil put Dimmesdale’s glove on the scaffold

b. Mistress Hibbons being an accepted member of the community.

c. The community allowing Chillingworth to hurt Dimmesdale

d. People swearing they saw nothing on Dimmesdale’s chest.

34. How does Chillingworth figure out who Pearl’s father really is?

a. Dimmesdale tells him

b. Chillingworth becomes Dimmesdale’s doctor and guesses the secret

c. Hester tells him one day in the woods

d. He never finds out

35. The brook in the forest could symbolize the separation between:

a. Hester and Pearl

b. Hester and Dimmesdale

c. Hester and Chillingworth

d. church and state

36. Which of the following is a rumor that spread about Chillingworth?

a. He’s gotten more handsome as time has gone on

b. One man saw him in New York City working under a different name

c. He got his knowledge of medicine in China

d. The fire in his lab is from Hell

37. Why don’t Dimmesdale’s punishments work to alleviate his guilt?

a. He doesn’t really feel guilty

b. No one else sees them, so he isn’t actually confessing

c. He gets too sick to worry about anything but his health

d. He doesn’t do enough of them, and the ones he does aren’t harsh enough.

38. What object unites the lovers in death?

a. their love

b. their grave

c. their descendants

d. their tombstone

39. What is the significance of the weeds in front of the prison door?

a. they represent the criminals and undesirables who are usually in prison

b. they represent the hard work the Puritans had to do to survive in the New World.

c. they represent the major role nature will play in the novel

d. nothing—Hawthorne is just describing the scene.

40. Why is Chillingworth so upset with Dimmesdale’s confession?

a. he’s afraid that the Puritans will kill Dimmesdale

b. he refuses to believe that Dimmesdale would commit such a sin

c. his chance at revenge has been taken away

d. Dimmesdale is ruining a perfectly good holiday celebration with his confession

41. Which of the following was most likely one of Hawthorne’s reasons for writing The Scarlet Letter?

a. a disturbing fascination with adultery

b. deep respect for the Puritan way of life

c. an interest in the psychological effects of crime and punishment

d. shame about his Puritan ancestors

42. Which of the following is NOT a book written by Nathanial Hawthorne?

a. Twice Told Tales

b. Blithedale Romance

c. The Pathfinder

d. The House of the Seven Gables

43. Which American President was Nathanial Hawthorne's friend from college?

a. Franklin Pierce

b. Andrew Jackson

c. James K. Polk

d. Chester A. Arthur

44. Dark romantics embraced what part of mankind?

a. capacity for good

b. evil

c. intelligence

d. wastefulness

Part II: True or False

For each of the following statements, determine whether it is true or false. If it is true, mark “A.” If it is false, mark “B.”

45. Dimmesdale is secretly married to Hester

46. The women of town feel the punishment is not severe enough

47. Chillingworth eventually forgives Dimmesdale but not Hester.

48. In the end, Pearl, as her mother had, also must wear a scarlet letter for adultery.

49. Pearl escapes and moves to New York.

50. Chillingworth sneaks onto the boat, where Dimmesdale dies.

51. Dimmesdale denies his and Hester’s union in death because he claims their love was only passion and nothing more.

Part III: Identify the speaker for each of the following quotes.

a. Narrator

b. Hester Prynne

c. Roger Chillingworth

d. Arthur Dimmesdale

e. Pearl

52. “God gave her the child, and gave her, too, an instinctive knowledge of its nature which no other mortal being can possess.”

53. “What had I to do with youth and beauty like your own?. . . how could I delude myself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil physical deformity in a young girl’s fantasy?”

54. “At last! At last I stand upon the spot where I should have stood seven years past!”

55. “Come away, . . . or that old Man in Black will catch you! . . . he has got hold of the minister already.”

56. “There was no place so secret--no high place nor lowly place--where you could have escaped me--save on this very scaffold!”

57. “Shall we not meet again? Shall we not spend our immortal life together? Surely, surely we have ransomed one another, with all this woe!”

58. “He will be known!”

59. “And will he always keep his hand over his heart?”

60. “Of penance, I have had enough! Of penitence, there has been none!”

today (or yesterday) is august 21. day 10.