How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe

What is the main conflict in "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe"?

• Winter is coming, and the cat has no shelter.

• The cat is abandoned on an island and must fight to survive.

• The family is worried about the cat.

• The cat is hungry and doesn't know how to catch food.

Which statement best explains the main conflict and resolution in "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe"?

• The cat learns how to hunt. She does not starve to death on the island.

• The cat faces many adversaries, including rats and owls. However, she persists and is able to overcome each.

• The family worries about the cat. They are overjoyed to discover that the cat is alive when they return.

• The cat is abandoned on an island. She adapts to the wilderness and survives until her family returns.

The first chapter of "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe" ends with a conflict:

At last, hopelessly discouraged, she curled herself up beneath the children's window and went to sleep.

Which explanation best describes the development of this conflict in the second chapter?

• The conflict continues to build until the cat is unsure how she will survive.

• The cat gives in to her grief and finds herself unable to move.

• The cat, while lonely, is able to find food and shelter. She adapts to her new environment and learns how to survive.

• The cat discovers that the island is a peaceful and joyful oasis. The initial conflict in the story is quickly resolved.

Which statement best describes how the chapters in "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe" develop the plot of the story?

• Each chapter explains a hunting challenge the cat faces during her time on the island; this allows the reader to see that the cat never stops struggling.

• Each chapter goes into great detail about the cat's feelings so we get to know the character better; this makes the reader care more about the cat.

• Each chapter describes a season on the island; this sets the pace of the story and allows the reader to know how much time is passing.

• Each chapter focuses on a new challenge or conflict that the cat faces while on the island; each smaller conflict helps to develop the main conflict.

Read the excerpt from "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe."

In her restlessness she wandered to the farther side of the island where, in a sunny recess of the shore facing the mainland, she found a patch of bare sand, free of ice cakes and just uncovered by the tide. Opening upon this recess were the tiny entrances to several of the mouse tunnels.

Close beside one of these holes in the snow the cat crouched, quivering, intent. For ten minutes or more she waited, never so much as twitching a whisker. At last a mouse thrust out its little pointed head.

How does this scene help develop the plot of the story?

• It provides a resolution to the cat's loneliness on the island.

• It helps resolve the cat's conflict of how to find food during the winter.

• It provides exposition of what the cat does to keep herself occupied on the deserted island.

• It helps explain the desolation of the island in the middle of winter.

Read the excerpt from "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe."

The seas hurled themselves trampling up the beach, with the uproar of a bombardment. The grasses lay bowed flat in long, quivering ranks. Over the turmoil the sun stared down from a deep, unclouded blue. The cat, when she first met the full force of the gale, was fairly blown off her feet.

Which type of conflict does the cat face?

• individual versus individual

• individual versus society

• individual versus self

• individual versus nature

Read the excerpt from "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe."

Something had rustled the grass heavily, and she trailed it, expecting a particularly large, fat marsh mouse. When she pounced upon an immense old ship's rat, she got badly bitten. Such an experience had never before happened to her. At first she felt so injured that she was on the point of backing out and running away. Then, the fire of far-off ancestors awoke within her. She flung herself furiously into the fight, and the struggle was soon over.

Which type of conflict does the cat face?

• individual versus individual

• individual versus self

• individual versus society

• individual versus nature

In "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe," what inference can be made about the cat's behavior while the family is still on the island?

• She sometimes stays out all night.

• She is used to going in and out of the house.

• She often gets food for herself.

• She is afraid of certain things on the island.

In "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe," what inference can be made about the cat?

• She learns to love the island more than her human family.

• She will continue to hunt even after she is reunited with her human family.

• Living alone on the island changes how she feels about her human family.

• She prefers living with her human family to living alone.

In "How a Cat Played Robinson Crusoe," which quote shows that the cat is an excellent hunter?

• "And in any case, the cat would have been afraid to go near it again."

• "With a frantic flapping of his great wings the owl checked himself and drew back into the air."

• "After that the marsh owls realized that it was best not to interfere with the black-striped animal with the quick spring and the clutching claws."

• "With its wide spread of wing and its great round face with hooked beak and wild, staring eyes, it appeared very threatening."