Name _____________________________ Class _________________ Date __________________
Unit 2: Collection 4
Selection Test
READING AND LITERATURE
from Resistance to Civil Government
Henry David Thoreau
COMPREHENSION Circle the letter of the best answer to each of the following
items.
1. Thoreau’s primary purpose in this essay is to persuade people to—
A) call for an immediate end to the government
B) rebel against an unjust war
C) follow their individual conscience
D) devote themselves to eliminating all wars
2. Thoreau’s main hope for the democracy of his time was that it would—
A) disappear as people stopped voting
B) progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy
C) abolish poll taxes
D) be one step along the route to a more perfect state
3. When Thoreau was released after spending the night in jail—
A) he saw that great changes had taken place in the outside world
B) he realized he could always trust his neighbors to do the right thing
C) the rest of the townspeople refused to have anything to do with him
D) he saw that people would not do the right thing if it meant taking risks
4. What did Thoreau believe about the people who refused to fight in the war with
Mexico?
A) They are all successfully resisting the government.
B) They should devote themselves to the eradication of slavery.
C) They are supporting the war if they are paying taxes.
D) They should pay someone to fight in their place.
5. Which of the following statements best represents Thoreau’s view of government?
A) Government always has the best interests of the individual citizen at heart.
B) The majority opinion is most likely to be the right opinion.
C) The majority rules because “might makes right.”
D) Individual conscience should be guided by majority opinion.
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Name _____________________________ Class _________________ Date __________________
Unit 2: Collection 4, Selection Test continued
6. What does Thoreau ask for instead of no government all at once?
A) An end to all taxes
B) A better government at once
C) Increased trade and commerce
D) New elected officials
7. Thoreau suggests that slavery could be abolished in America by—
A) slaves rebelling against their masters all throughout the country
B) one man refusing to support slavery and going to jail for it
C) a group of honest men stepping in and abolishing slavery
D) a compromise reached between the government and slaveholders
8. Which of the following statements best describes Thoreau’s attitude about the
individual’s relationship to the State?
A) As long as an individual respects other people, the State should leave him
alone.
B) The State is a higher power than the individual.
C) The individual derives rights from the State.
D) Individuals will be happier if the State has more authority.
VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT Match the definition on the left with the
vocabulary word on the right. On the line provided, write the letter of the correct
vocabulary word.
_____
9. generations to come
A) expedient
B) perverted
_____ 10. misdirected; corrupted
C) posterity
_____ 11. convenience; means to an end
D) alacrity
_____ 12. inborn; built-in
E) inherent
_____ 13. promptness in responding; eagerness
LITERARY FOCUS Circle the letter of the best answer to each of the following
items.
14. Which of the following statements describes a paradoxical situation?
A) “For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be . . .”
B) “I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax.”
C) “It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West.”
D) “I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.”
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Name _____________________________ Class _________________ Date __________________
Unit 2: Collection 4, Selection Test continued
15. What does Thoreau mean by “That government is best which governs not at all”?
A) All governments must be immediately abolished.
B) All government is inherently bad for the people being governed.
C) Effective governments allow people to rule themselves.
D) Government can never really control people; all power is an illusion.
16. Thoreau uses paradoxes because he believes that—
A) contradictory statements never reveal the truth
B) life is complex, so complicated statements should be used to reveal the truth
C) the truth can always be revealed by using descriptive details
D) truth can be revealed by examining contradictions
READING FOCUS Circle the letter of the best answer to each of the following
items.
17. A logical appeal is one type of—
A) thematic technique
C) narrative discourse
B) persuasive technique
D) figure of speech
18. In which of the following lines does Thoreau use an emotional appeal?
A) “. . . for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that
stone wall.”
B) “A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it
ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State . . . .”
C) “It was like traveling into a far country, such as I had never expected to
behold, to lie there for one night.”
D) “. . . we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness.”
19. When Thoreau states that “I please myself with imagining a State at last which can
. . . treat the individual with respect as a neighbor. . . ,” he is using—
A) an ethical appeal
C) an emotional appeal
B) a logical appeal
D) a logical and emotional appeal
CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE
20. Do you agree with Thoreau’s statement “That government is best which governs not
at all”? Why or why not? On a separate sheet of paper, write a paragraph that
explains your answer.
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