"Marigolds"

Which of the following best describes the narrator’s hometown as it compares to the rest of Depression-era America?

• A. Both her hometown and the rest of America believe that things will improve.

• B. The people in her hometown believe in the promise of the American Dream that has already rewarded so many other Americans.

• C. The rest of America is just starting to experience the deep poverty that her town has suffered through for many years.

• D. The Depression is the first time people in her hometown and the rest of America are finding themselves poor and unhappy.

What do the following lines from the passage mainly reveal about Lizabeth?

"Suddenly I was ashamed, and I did not like being ashamed. The child in me sulked and said it was all in fun, but the woman in me flinched at the thought of the malicious attack that I had led."

• A. Lizabeth knows she is maturing because she is aware of the consequences of her actions.

• B. Lizabeth wishes that she and the neighborhood kids had gotten the chance to kill all of Miss Lottie’s marigolds.

• C. Getting older meant that now Lizabeth realizes what poverty her family lives in.

• D. Lizabeth feels more like a woman because she is bored by summer and ready to go back to school.

Which of the following words best replaces perverse in the following excerpt?

"For some perverse reason, we children hated those marigolds. They interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place; they were too beautiful; they said too much that we could not understand; they did not make sense."

• A. justified

• B. ingenious

• C. obvious

• D. abnormal

What does Lizabeth most likely mean in the following excerpt from paragraph 7?

"For the most part, those days are ill-defined in my memory, running together and combining like a fresh watercolor painting left out in the rain."

• A. She realizes that her days growing up poor in rural Maryland are what inspired her to become a painter.

• B. She is not sure if she remembers the exact details of everything that happened, but she can recall the way that she felt when she was growing up.

• C. Memories of the dry dirt and dust from growing up have mixed together with later days once the rain finally fell on their area.

• D. None of the events of the story she is about to tell about Miss Lottie’s marigolds are things that actually happened to her.

What does Lizabeth’s parents’ interaction in the middle of the night mainly reveal about Lizabeth’s father?

• A. He does not think their family will ever lift themselves out of poverty.

• B. He is a proud man who does not want to accept help from other people.

• C. He is hopeful that he will soon find work of his own.

• D. He thinks that his wife should stop working for Mr. Ellis.

Which passage from the text most strongly supports the answer to Question 5?

• A. “Damn Mr. Ellis’s coat! And damn his money! You think I want white folks’ leavings?"

• B. “But my father’s voice cut through hers, shattering the peace.”

• C. “It’s all right, honey, you’ll get something. Everybody out of work now, you know that.”

• D. "My father whittled toys for us, and laughed so loud that the great oak seemed to laugh with him, and taught us how to fish and hunt rabbits.”

Based on the last three paragraphs of the excerpt, which statement would the narrator most likely agree with?

• A. People need to find small pleasures to give them hope when life becomes too painful to endure.

• B. Children growing up in extreme poverty tend to remain innocent until an older age than most other kids.

• C. The harder a child’s life is, the more likely they are to show respect for the other people suffering around them.

• D. Poor children are just as afraid of witches as children who grow up in much wealthier families.

Which passage from the text best supports the answer to Question 7?

• A. “Innocence involves an unseeing acceptance of things at face value, an ignorance of the area below the surface.”

• B. “The witch was no longer a witch but only a broken old woman who had dared to create beauty in the midst of ugliness and sterility.”

• C. “The years have taken me worlds away from that time and that place...”

• D. “For one does not have to be ignorant and poor to find that his life is as barren as the dusty yards of our town. And I too have planted marigolds.”

The characteristic, "a face with stern stoicism and doesn’t like intruders, especially children" can be attributed to:

• John Burke

• Joey

• Lizabeth’s Mother

• Miss Lottie

The event, Lizabeth feels compassion for Miss Lottie after realizing the importance of the marigolds, is the _________ event in the story.

• First

• Second

• Third

• Fourth