Children of the Gold Rush Comprehension Test

How do you define a dredge? (Use your books text features to find this out.)

• A large industrial machine that digs out the gold or other minerals buried in rock.

• a thick layer of ice

• a wooden mallet used to break up ore.

• a tool which uses water and a rocking movement to displace gold dust from other minerals.

What job did the Cheroskys do for the famous trader Jack McQuesten?

• They were packers for people bringing supplies to trade.

• They conducted religious services for the workers at his trading posts.

• They worked as translators at his trading posts on the Yukon.

• They taught the trading-post cooks how to prepare Alaskan dishes.

Who was Baldy in Children of the Gold Rush? (Hint: use your text features to look it up.)

• An old statue kids would touch for good luck before racing in the parades.

• A famous circus performer who worked different boom towns during the Yukon gold rush.

• One of the first men to strike gold in the Yukon.

• A famous sled dog.

On what page do you find the table of contents?

• pg. 95

• pg. 5

• pg. 91

• pg.12

What did Robert Farnsworth do when the first spring boat got to the fort?

• He immediately showed a new boy his favorite fishing spot.

• He gave each child in the new family a small gold nugget from his bag.

• He grabbed the mail sack and began passing out letters.

• He threw his arms around a new boy about his age and got a black eye for it.

Why did the Mayo twins dig dirt and dust out of the cracks of the floor?

• It was easier for them to mop the floor when the cracks were clean.

• They then panned it to recover gold that miners had spilled.

• Their mother insisted that their store be the cleanest in the Yukon.

• Their father paid them a tiny gold nugget for every pound of dirt.

Although Council was a small town, Klondy Nelson was able to ___.

• sell several of her water colors to a Swedish buyer

• earn her high school diploma

• take violin lessons from a German professor

• learn French from a local innkeeper.

How did Cleora help make money in the summer for her family?

• She played the violin at outdoor concerts

• She delivered the weekly newspaper

• She helped pick and sell blueberries

• She tended flower beds for some wealthy people.

Cleora Casady learned about gold mining by ___.

• pestering the men with questions

• reading every article she could find on the subject

• sneaking into the mines to watch

• quizzing her stepbrother Adolph when he returned from work.

What racket did Donald McDonald hear every morning and evening in Iditarod?

• The groups of miners leaving for and returning from work

• the work whistle form the Iditarod mine

• the barking of many sled dogs

• a train chugging into and out of town.