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The Cremation of Sam McGee Reading Check

Total questions: 16

Worksheet time: 14mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

Where is Sam McGee from?

a)

Alaska

b)

Massachusetts

c)

Tennessee

d)

New York

2.

Which point of view is this written in?

a)

first person

b)

second person

c)

third person objective

d)

third person limited

e)

third person omniscient

3.

Which device is used in "where the cotton blooms and blows"?

a)

personification

b)

allusion

c)

alliteration

d)

hyperbole

4.

Which of the following reveals why Sam McGee was in Alaska?

a)

"God only knows."

b)

"the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell"

c)

"the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe"

d)

"you'll cremate my last remains"

5.

What does it mean that "through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail"?

a)

The weather was windy and cold, which was painful to the speaker's skin.

b)

The cold was being personified as hitting the speaker's face and causing injury.

c)

The weather added to the overall conflict of the speaker.

d)

The speaker's jacket was being blown open by the breeze.

6.

Which of these indicates the theme of the poem?

a)

"Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows"

b)

"A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail"

c)

"There wasn't a breath in that land of death"

d)

"I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear"

7.

What is the "derelict" in stanza 10?

a)

a cabin

b)

a ruined ship

c)

a sleigh

d)

a lake

8.

Why did the speaker say that "the heavens scowled" in the twelfth stanza?

a)

Sam was upset because the speaker was cremating him.

b)

The speaker felt guilty that he was doing something wrong by cremating his friend in that manner.

c)

He was just indicating that there was storm brewing.

d)

He felt that Sam was frowning at him because it took so long to cremate him.

9.

Which of these best indicates the speaker's inner conflict of Sam's cremation?

a)

"The trail was bad"

b)

"And I looked at it, and I thought a bit"

c)

"It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks"

d)

"I wrestled with grisly fear"

10.

One central idea of the poem is...

a)

Life was hard for these people who were moiling for gold during the Klondike Gold Rush.

b)

It was so cold for those men who were moiling for gold.

c)

The Klondike Gold Rush was a terrible time in history.

d)

Klondike bars are yummy!

11.

What line in the poem shows that Cap feels obligated to cremate Sam McGee? Choose TWO.

a)

"Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no;then he says with a sort of moan; It's the cursed cold, and It's got right hold till i'm chilled clean through bone."

b)

"On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail. Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail."

c)

"A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;

d)

"And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! He looked ghastly pale."

12.

"Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay." What is the best meaning of derelict in the previous quote?

a)

a person with no money or job

b)

something that appears to be real

c)

something abandoned by its owner

d)

something that helps someone

13.

What did the speaker see when he opened the door to the crematorium?

a)

Sam's ashes

b)

A bag of gold

c)

Sam and the dogs

d)

Sam - Alive and smiling

14.

The end of the poem has a surprising twist when Sam is "alive".

a)

True

b)

False

15.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

a)

internal rhyme

b)

rhyme scheme

c)

slant rhyme

d)

rhythm

16.

If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see

a)

imagery

b)

onomatopoeia

c)

repetition

d)

alliteration