Name ____________________________________
Date ____________________ Period __________
To Kill a Mockingbird
Final Novel Test
Directions: Your final test for To Kill a Mockingbird will take place on _____________________. The
following questions are taken directly from the test. Use your copy of the novel to develop answers to each
question. Some special types of questions will be included:
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Multiple Choices: Some questions will require more than one correct answer from those listed. These questions
are marked with a box around them. Directions in the question will tell you how many answers to choose.
Bubble each correct answer on the same line next to the appropriate number on your scantron.
Paired items: Sometimes, you will find two questions boxed together with a star (*) next to the first item. The
answer to the second item in the pair is based on the first item.
REMEMBER TO TURN IN YOUR COPY OF THE NOVEL ON THE DAY OF THE TEST.
If you do not turn in your copy of the novel, you will be placed on the obligation list.
Read this description of Maycomb from the first chapter of the novel.
Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather, the streets turned to red slop; grass
grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then…
1.
What is the author’s purpose for mentioning the courthouse in this selection? Choose TWO.
Read this description of the Radley house from chapter 1:
The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darkened to the color of the
slate-gray yard around it. Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away. The
remains of a picket fence drunkenly guarded the front yard—a “swept” yard that was never swept—where Johnson grass and
rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance.
Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom.
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*How does the author structure this description to convey a sense of eeriness about the Radley place?
What details best help to convey the sense of eeriness about the Radley place? Choose THREE.
On the first day of school, Miss Caroline tells Scout that she is “starting off on the wrong foot in every way.” Which of the
following quotes from the novel provides evidence of difficulties that Scout encountered on her first day of school? Choose
TWO.
*According to Atticus, why does Scout have to go to school when Burris Ewell does not?
What evidence does Atticus provide to explain his statement to Scout?
*At the end of the first day of school, Atticus offers the following advice to Scout: “You never really understand a person until
you consider things from his point of view.” Through this phrase, Atticus could best be characterized as
When did Scout use this advice in the novel? Choose TWO.
Read the following description of Miss Maudie Atkinson.
“Miss Maudie was a widow, a chameleon lady who worked in her old straw hat and men’s coveralls, but after her five o’clock
bath she would appear on the porch and reign on the street in magisterial beauty.”
9. What does the author mean by the phrase chameleon lady in this passage?
10. Which of the following quotes characterizes Scout as innocent?
11. When Nathan Radley plugs the knothole in the tree with cement, he is sending the message that
12. The fire at Miss Maudie’s house provides the author with an opportunity to further the Boo Radley plot
Read this selection. Atticus is speaking to Uncle Jack about the upcoming trial of Tom Robinson.
“…I hope I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all without catching Maycomb’s usual disease. Why
reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don’t pretend to understand.”
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16.
What does Atticus mean by “Maycomb’s usual disease”?
Which of the following quotes proves that defending Tom Robinson is an issue of morality for Atticus? Choose TWO.
It is ironic that Jem and Scout think that their father cannot do much of anything except read because
What is the purpose of the scene where Atticus shoots the mad dog?
Atticus says the following about Mrs. Dubose:
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you
know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but
sometimes you do.”
17. *What is Atticus referring to when he says “courage is a man with a gun in his hand”?
18. Why is it important to Atticus that his children understand that courage is “when you know you’re licked before you begin but
you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what”?
Read this selection which describes what the children saw when they entered Mrs. Dubose’s room to read to her:
There was a marble–topped wash stand by her bed; on it were a glass with a teaspoon in it, a red ear syringe, a box of absorbent
cotton, and a steel alarm clock standing on three tiny legs.
19. Select the quote from later in the chapter that reveals to the reader why this information is significant.
20. *Aunt Alexandra defines “Fine Folks” as
21. Throughout the novel, Scout and Jem note that, by Aunt Alexandra’s definition, the Ewells and Mr. Dolphus Raymond are “fine
folks.” How is this ironic?
22. When Scout and Jem go to church with Calpurnia, how does Reverend Sykes ensure that they raise $10 in the collection for Tom
Robinson’s wife?
23. In what ways does the chapter where Calpurnia takes the children to her church contribute to the development of the overall plot
of the novel? Choose TWO.
Read this sentence from chapter 12 where Scout and Jem go to church with Calpurnia:
That Calpurnia led a modest double life never dawned upon me.
24. What does Scout mean by saying that Calpurnia “led a modest double life”?
Read this selection from the novel:
Lula stopped , but she said, “You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillum here—they got their church, we got our’n.
It’s our church, ain’t it Miss Cal?”
Calpurnia said, “It’s the same God, ain’t it?”
Jem said, “Let’s go home, Cal, they don’t want us here—“
I agreed: they did not want us here. I sensed, rather than saw, that we were being advanced upon. They seemed to be
drawing closer to us, but when I looked up at Calpurnia there was amusement in her eyes. When I looked down the path
again, Lula was gone. In her place was a mass of colored people.
25. *What does Scout fear is happening in this situation?
26. What is actually happening in this situation?
Read this selection from chapter 14, the night Scout found Dill hiding under her bed:
As Dill explained [why he ran away], I found myself wondering what life would be if Jem were different, even from what he was
now; what I would do if Atticus did not feel the necessity of my presence, held, and advice. Why, he couldn’t get along a day
without me. Even Calpurnia couldn’t get along unless I was there. They needed me.
27. Which of the following is the best interpretation of Scout’s thoughts expressed in this quote?
Read this selection from chapter 15 when the mob tries to take Tom Robinson from the county jail.
“Don’t you remember me, Mr. Cunningham? I’m Jean Louise Finch. You brought us some hickory nuts one time,
remember?” I began to sense the futility one feels when unacknowledged by a chance acquaintance.
“I go to school with Walter,” I began again. “He’s your boy, ain’t he? Ain’t he, sir?
Mr. Cunningham was moved to a faint nod. He did know me, after all.
“He’s in my grade,” I said, “and he does right well. He’s a good boy,” I added, “a real nice boy. We brought him home for
dinner one time. Maybe he told you about me, I beat him up one time, but he was real nice about it. Tell him hey for me,
won’t you?”
28. Which quote from the novel explains why the mob went home after Scout spoke to Mr. Cunningham?
29. Why is it ironic that Mr. Underwood was prepared to defend Atticus and Tom Robinson from the mob?
30. Mayella Ewell thinks that Attiucs is making fun of her by calling her “ma’am” and “Miss Mayella.” What does this reveal about
her character?
31. What did Atticus prove about the case? Choose THREE.
32. *What is Atticus's central point in his closing argument in Tom Robinson's case?
33. Which of the following quotes supports Atticus's central assertion in his closing argument?
34. Which of the following quotes foreshadow (prepares the reader for) the verdict in Tom's case? Choose TWO.
35. After the trial, when Atticus walked out, the African-Americans in the balcony stood up in a display of
36. One of the themes of the novel is that people can be good and evil at the same time. In what way do the Cunninghams
demonstrate this theme?
37. Why does Jem cry after the trial?
38. Aunt Alexandra does not want Scout to play with Walter Cunningham. Why?
39. Scout discovers that Boo Radley is
Read these quotes from chapter 10:
Atticus: Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember, it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
Miss Maudie: Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest
in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
40. Which two characters MOST represent “mockingbirds?”
41. Which of the following quotes best presents Helen Robinson (Tom’s widow) as a mockingbird?
Put these events from the Boo Radley plotline into chronological order.
On the Radley porch, Scout “stands in Boo’s shoes.”
Scout meets Boo face-to-face in Jem’s room.
Jem finds his torn pants folded and mended.
Nathan Radley shoots at the children.
Nathan Radley fills the knothole with cement.
Boo kills Bob Ewell when Ewell attacks Scout and Jem.
Boo puts a blanket over Scout’s shoulders while Miss Maudie’s house is on fire.
Atticus orders the children to stop playing the “Radley game.”
Jem plans to leave a note in the tree knothole for the gift-giver.