Name
Date
from LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
Selection Test A
Comprehension
Read each of the following questions. Then choose the letter of the best answer. (6 points
each)
1. What did Bixby agree to do for Twain?
A. teach him how a steamboat engine works
A. refused to steer upstream
B. let him ride to St. Louis for free
B. hit the oar of a trading scow
C. let him sleep all night without working
C. remembered nothing Bixby told him
D. teach him to steer the steamboat
D. complained about working at night
2. The steamboat must stay close to the riverbank
6. Why did Bixby shout and swear at the crew
when it travels upstream to
of the trading scow?
A. stay clear of other boats
A. It was the crew’s fault the steamboat hit
B. avoid the river’s current
their oar.
B. He was furious at Twain and needed to
shout.
C. He was trying to teach Twain why the boats
hit.
D. He was giving the scow crew instructions.
C. come close to landmarks
D. make stops easily
3. What does Twain’s humorous tone in the voice
of this excerpt suggest about his opinion of
himself?
“I had my own opinion of the pilot who had
known no better than to get us into such peril,
but I was too wise to express it”
A. He believes that he is smarter than the
pilot.
B. He knows that he is too full of opinions.
C. He does not take himself too seriously.
D. He believes that he talks too much.
4. Which is the best paraphrase of the underlined
hyperbole in the following excerpt?
“I either came near chipping off the edge of
a sugar plantation, or I yawed too far from
shore, and so dropped back into disgrace again
and got abused.”
A. He almost hit the shore of a sugar
7. What did Bixby want Twain to write in a little
book?
A. his times to be on watch
B. a description of other boats
C. daily events on the steamboat
D. landmarks Twain needed to know
8. Paraphrase the following excerpt.
“The face of the water, in time, became a
wonderful book—a book that was a dead
language to the uneducated passenger . . .”
A. The river speaks a dead language.
from LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
Copyright by McDougal Littell, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company
5. Bixby got very angry at Twain because Twain
B. The river tells the boat stories.
C. The passengers cannot read.
D. The educated can read the river.
plantation.
B. He broke a chip from the edge of a
plantation.
C. He broke the wall of a sugar plantation.
D. He landed on a sugar plantation.
Resource Manager
Unit 4
American Literature
59
Name
Date
SELECTION TEST A, CONTINUED
9. What wonderful memory does the narrator
10. Why do steamboat pilots stop seeing the
have from his first days on a steamboat?
beauty of the river?
A. a beautiful sunset
A. They work too hard to notice anything.
B. another steamboat
B. They see the same things over and over.
C. the moon and sun
C. They see only what affects their steering.
D. a bank of trees
D. The sunsets are less beautiful than before.
Written Response
Short Response Answer the following questions based on your knowledge of the
memoir. Write a sentence or two on a separate sheet of paper. (10 points each)
11. What must a pilot do to steer the steamboat upstream?
12. Describe one part of the pilot’s job that came as a surprise to Twain.
Extended Response Answer the following question based on your knowledge of the
memoir. Write one or two paragraphs on a separate sheet of paper. (20 points)
13. What is your opinion of Bixby as a teacher? Support your answer with three details
from LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
Copyright by McDougal Littell, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company
from the memoir.
60
Unit 4
American Literature
Resource Manager