To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

Name____________________________________________________Date______________________________Period__________________

Read the following passages from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Choose the best responses to the
prompts that follow each passage. There is one and only one correct answer to each prompt.

Part I: Chapter 1

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather
the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.
Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to
Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars
wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’ clock naps, and by
nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.
People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores
around it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer.
There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with,
nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for
some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear
itself.
We lived on the main residential street in town—Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook.
Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous
detachment.

1. (RL3) Describe the environment presented in this passage?

2. (RL3) Which of the sentences from the passage best describes the economic (financial) situation of
people in Maycomb?

3. (RL3) How has life in Maycomb probably changed since the flashback that’s presented here?

4. (RL1) Why did the people of Maycomb start to feel that it was a time of vague optimism?

5. (RL1) Why is Calpurnia named here?

6. (RL5) What role does this passage from the first chapter play in the overall structure of Part I?

Part I Chapter 3
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

“Whole school’s full of ‘em. They come first day every year and then leave. The truant lady gets ‘em here ‘cause
she threatens ‘em with the sheriff, but she’s give up tryin’ to hold ‘em. She reckons she’s carried out the law just
gettin’ their names on the roll and runnin’ ‘em here the first day. You’re supposed to mark ‘em absent the rest of
the
year . . .”
“But what about their parents?” asked Miss Caroline, in genuine concern.
“Ain’t got no mother,” was the answer, “and their paw’s right contentious.”
Burris Ewell was flattered by the recital, “Been comin’ to the first day o’ the first grade fer three year now,”
he said expansively. “Reckon if I’m smart this year they’ll promote me to the second . . . .”
Miss Caroline said, “Sit back down, please, Burris,” and the moment she said it I knew she had made a
serious mistake. The boy’s condescension flashed to anger.
“You try and make me, missus.”
Little Chuck Little got to his feet. “Let him go, ma’am,” he said. “He’s a mean one, a hard-down mean one.
He’s liable to start somethin’, and there’s some little folks here.”
He was among the most diminutive of men, but when Burris Ewell turned toward him, Little Chuck’s right
hand went to his pocket. “Watch your step, Burris,” he said. “I’d soon’s kill you as look at you. Now go home.”
Burris seemed to be afraid of a child half his height, and Miss Caroline took advantage of his indecision:
“Burris, go home. If you don’t I’ll call the principal,” she said. “I’ll have to report this, anyway.”

7. (RL3) How do the roles of student and teacher develop throughout this passage?

8. (RL3) Which comment best demonstrates Burris’s tone of boldness and rebellion toward the teacher?

9. (RL6) Which of the lines is an example of verbal irony?

10. (RL4) Little Chuck Little states, “He’s liable to start somethin’, and there’s some little folks here.” What
word is the best replacement of the term little as he uses the word in his sentence?

11. (RL1) Which of the questions remains unanswered?

To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

Part I Chapter 5

“Miss Maudie,” I said one evening, “do you think Boo Radley's still alive?"
“His name’s Arthur and he's alive,” she said. She was rocking slowly in her big oak chair. “Do you smell my
mimosa? It's like angels’ breath this evening."
“Yessum. How do you know?"
“Know what, child?"
“That B—Mr. Arthur’s still alive?"
“What a morbid question. But I suppose it's a morbid subject. I know he’s alive, Jean Louise, because I
haven't seen him carried out yet."
“Maybe he died and they stuffed him up the chimney."
“Where did you get such a notion?"
“That's what Jem said he thought they did."
“S-ss-ss. He gets more like Jack Finch every day.”
Miss Maudie had known Uncle Jack Finch, Atticus's brother, since they were children. Nearly the same age,
they had grown up together at Finch’s Landing. Miss Maudie was the daughter of a neighboring landowner, Dr.
Frank Buford. Dr. Buford's profession was medicine and his obsession was anything that grew in the ground, so
he stayed poor. Uncle Jack Finch confined his passion for digging to his window boxes in Nashville and stayed
rich. We saw Uncle Jack every Christmas, and every Christmas he yelled across the street for Miss Maudie to
come marry him. Miss Maudie would yell back, “Call a little louder, Jack Finch, and they'll hear you at the post
office, I haven't heard you yet!" Jem and I thought this is a strange way to ask for lady’s hand in marriage, but
then Uncle Jack was rather strange. He said he was trying to get Miss Maudie’s goat, that he had been trying
unsuccessfully for forty years, that he was the last person in the world Miss Maudie would think about marrying
but the first person she thought about teasing, and the best defense to her was spirited offense, all of which we
understood clearly.

12. (RL1) For about how long has Miss Maudie known Uncle Jack Finch?

13. (RL4) Which term does Miss Maudie use to suggest that a person’s death has occurred?

14. (RL4) Which of the line contains figurative language that makes the writing more engaging?

15. (RL3) Which best describes the relationship between Jack Finch and Miss Maudie?
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

16. (RL4) Which is the best definition of morbid as the term is used in this context?

17. (RL4) Miss Maudie says, ““Call a little louder, Jack Finch, and they'll hear you at the post office, I
haven't heard you yet!" Which is the most accurate way to characterize her comment?

Part I Chapter 6

"Okay," said Jem. "Why don't you go on home, Scout?"

"What are you gonna do?"
Dill and Jem were simply going to peep in the window with the loose shutter to see if they could get a look
at Boo Radley, and if I didn't want to go with them I could go straight home and keep my fat flopping mouth shut,
that was all.
"But why in the sam holy hill did you wait till tonight?"
Because nobody could see them at night, because Atticus would be so deep in a book he wouldn't hear the
Kingdom coming, because if Boo Radley killed them they'd miss school instead of vacation, and because it was
easier to see inside a dark house in the dark than in the daytime, did I understand?
"Jem, please—"
"Scout, I'm telling you for the last time, shut your trap or go home—I declare to the Lord you're gettin' more
like a girl every day!"
With that, I had no option but to join them. We thought it was better to go under the high wire fence at the
rear of the Radley lot, we stood less chance of being seen. The fence enclosed a large garden and a narrow
wooden outhouse.
Jem held up the bottom wire and motioned Dill under it. I followed, and held up the wire for Jem. It was a
tight squeeze for him. "Don't make a sound," he whispered. "Don't get in a row of collards whatever you do,
they'll wake the dead."

18. (RL1) What are Dill and Jem planning to go and do as this passage opens?

19. (RL1) Why do Jem and Dill prefer that Scout leave them and go home?

20. (RL6) What is an example of hyperbole?

21. (RL6) What does Jem mean when he declares that Scout is “gettin’ more like a girl every day”?

22. (RL3) How is Jem established as the leader here?

To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

Part I Chapter 7

Someone had filled our knot-hole with cement.

"Don't you cry, now, Scout . . . don't cry now, don't you worry—" he muttered at me all the way to school.
When we went home for dinner Jem bolted his food, ran to the porch and stood on the steps. I followed him.
"Hasn't passed by yet," he said.
Next day Jem repeated his vigil and was rewarded.
"Hidy do, Mr. Nathan," he said.
"Morning Jem, Scout," said Mr. Radley, as he went by.
"Mr. Radley," said Jem.
Mr. Radley turned around.
"Mr. Radley, ah—did do you put cement in that hole in that tree down yonder?"
"Yes," he said. "I filled it up."
"Why did you do it sir?"
"Tree's dying. You plug 'em with cement when they're sick. You ought to know that, Jem."
Jim said nothing more about it until late afternoon. When we passed our tree he gave it a meditative pat on
its cement, and remained deep in thought. He seemed to be working himself into a bad humor, so I kept my
distance.
As usual, we met Atticus coming home from work that evening. When we were at our steps Jem said,
"Atticus, look down yonder at that tree, please sir."
"What tree, son?"
"The one on the corner of the Radley lot coming from school."
"Yes?"
"Is that tree dyin'?"
"Why no, son, I don't think so. Look at the leaves, they're all green and full, no brown patches anywhere—"
"It ain't even sick?"
"That tree's as healthy as you are, Jem."

23. (RL1) Why does Mr. Nathan Radley claim to have filled the knothole of his tree with cement?

24. (RL1) Why does Jem question Atticus about the Radley’s tree?

25. (RL2) What is the central idea of this passage?

26. (RL4) Which would be the most accurate replacement for the term hidy do as it is used here?
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

27. (RL5) The author chooses to structure this passage as dialogue. What is the result of the use of
dialogue here?

Part I Chapter 9

"Do you defend niggers, Atticus?" I asked him that evening.

"Of course I do. Don't say nigger, Scout. That's common."
"'s what everybody at school says."
"From now on it'll be everybody less one—"
"Well if you don't want me to grow up talkin' that way, why do you send me to school?"
My father looked at me mildly, amusement in his eyes. Despite our compromise, my campaign to avoid
school had continued in one form or another since my first day's dose of it: the beginning of last September had
brought on sinking spells, dizziness, and mild gastric complaints. I went so far as to pay a nickel for the privilege
of rubbing my head against the head of Miss Rachel's cook's son, who was afflicted with a tremendous ringworm.
It didn't take.
But I was worrying another bone. "Do all lawyers defend n-Negroes, Atticus?"
"Of course they do, Scout."
"Then why did Cecil say you defended niggers? He made it sound like you were runnin' a still."
Atticus sighed. "I'm simply defending a Negro—his name's Tom Robinson. He lives in that little settlement
beyond the town dump. He's a member of Calpurnia's church, and Cal knows his family well. She says they're
clean-living folks. Scout, you aren't old enough to understand some things yet, but there's been some high talk
around town to the effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man. It's a peculiar case—it won't come
to trial until summer session. John Taylor was kind enough to give us a postponement . . ."
"If you shouldn't be defendin' him, then why are you doin' it?"
"For a number of reasons," said Atticus. "The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I
couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again."

28. (RL2) Which two key lessons does Atticus attempt to teach Scout here?

29. (RL1) Why does Scout try to become afflicted with a ringworm?

30. (RL4) The word compromise is used in the passage. Which is the meaning of the word in this context?

31. (RL5) The author structures this passage as a conversation instead of simply a flashback. What is the
result of the author’s choice?

32. (RL6) What is ironic about Scout’s ringworm situation?

To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test
Part I Chapter 10
When he gave us our air-rifles, Atticus wouldn't teach us to shoot. Uncle Jack instructed us in the rudiments
thereof; he said Atticus wasn't interested in guns. Atticus said to Jem one day, "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in
the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember
it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about
it.
"Your father's right, she said. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't
eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's
why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

33. (RL1) Why doesn’t Atticus teach the kids how to shoot their air-rifles?

34. (RL1) Why is Atticus willing to allow the children to shoot at bluejays?

35. (RL3) Why does Scout choose to speak to Miss Maudie regarding her concern?

36. (RL4) What does the novel’s symbolic mockingbird represent?

37. (RL5) How does the author structures this passage?

Part I Chapter 11

“She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you're sick as she was,
it's all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn't all right for her. She said she meant to break herself
of it before she died, and that's what she did."
Jem said, “You mean that's what her fits were?"
“Yes, that's what they were. Most of the time you were reading to her I doubt if she heard a word you said.
Her whole mind and body were concentrated on that alarm clock. If you hadn’t fallen into her hands, I’d have
made you go read to her anyway. It may have been some distraction. There was another reason—"
“Did she die free?” asked Jem.
“As the mountain air,” said Atticus. “She was conscious to the last, almost. Conscious,” he smiled, “and
cantankerous. She still disapproved heartily of my doings, and said I’d probably spend the rest of my life bailing
you out of jail. She had Jessie fix you this box—"
Atticus reached down and picked up the candy box. He handed it to Jem.
Jem opened the box. Inside, surrounded by wads of damp cotton, was a white, waxy, perfect camellia. It was
a Snow-on-the-Mountain.
Jem’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Old hell-devil, old hell-devil!" he screamed, flinging it down.
"Why can't she leave me alone?"
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test
In a flash Atticus was up and standing over him. Jem buried his face in Atticus's shirt front. "Sh-h," he said.
"I think that was her way of telling you—everything’s all right now, Jem, everything’s all right. You know, she
was a great lady.”

38. (RL1) What is in the candy box?

39. (RL1) Why does Jem feel like Mrs. Dubose just won’t leave him alone?

40. (RL3) How would Atticus characterize Mrs. Dubose?

41. (RL4) Jem asks, “Did she die free?” What does he mean?

42. (RL5) How is this passage structured?

Part II Chapter 12

“That's why you don't talk like the rest of ‘em,” said Jem.
“The rest of who?”
“Rest of the colored folks. Cal, but you talked like they did in church. . . .”
That Calpurnia led a modest double life never dawned on me. The idea that she had a separate existence
outside our household was a novel one, to say nothing of her having command of two languages.
“Cal,” I asked, “why do you talk nigger-talk to the—to your folks when you know it's not right?”
“Well, in the first place I'm black—"
“That doesn't mean you hafta talk that way when you know better,” said Jem.
Calpurnia tilted her hat and scratched her head, then pressed her hat down carefully over her ears. “It's
right hard to say,” she said. “Suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks’ talk at home it’d be out of place,
wouldn't it? Now what if I talked white-folks’ talk at church, and with my neighbors? They’d think I was putting
on airs to beat Moses."
“But Cal, you know better,” I said.
“It's not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike—in the second place, folks don't like to have
somebody around knowin’ more than they do. It aggravates 'em. You're not gonna change any of them by talkin’
right, they’ve got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but
keep your mouth shut or talk their language."

43. (RL1) How did Calpurnia speak at church according to Jem and Scout?

44. (RL1) Before this occasion, how often had Jem and Scout observed Calpurnia around other black
people?

45. (RL2) Which two topics come together to advance the plot in this passage?
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

46. (RL3) How does this passage present Calpurnia as a round character?

47. (RL5) How does this passage contribute to the structure of the novel?

48. (RL3) Which of Calpurnia’s statements or actions shows that she is struggling to find a way to explain
her point?

49. (RL4) Scout notices that Calpurnia “has command” of two languages. What does it mean to have
command of something?

Part II Chapter 14

There was a man Dill had heard of who had a boat that he rowed across to a foggy island where all these
babies were; you could order one—
"That's a lie. Auntie said God drops ‘em down the chimney. At least that's what I think she said." For once,
Auntie’s diction had not been too clear.
“Well that ain't so. You get babies from each other. But there's this man, too—he has all these babies just
waitin’ to wake up, he breathes life into ‘em. . . ."
Dill was off again. Beautiful things floated around in his dreamy head. He could read two books to my one,
but he preferred the magic of his own inventions. He could add and subtract faster than lightning, but he
preferred his own twilight world, a world where babies slept, waiting to be gathered light morning lilies. He was
slowly talking himself to sleep and taking me with him, but in the quietness of his foggy island there rose the
faded image of a gray house with sad brown doors.
“Dill?"
“Mm?"
“Why do you reckon Boo Radley’s never run off?"
Dill sighed a long sigh and turned away from me.
“Maybe he doesn't have any where to run off to. . . ."

50. (RL1) Support the idea that Dill is both smart and imaginative?

51. (RL4) Which word is a synonym of the term diction as the word is used in the passage?

52. (RL4) Scout says that Dill “was off” again. What does she mean when she says he “was off”?

53. (RL1) What question(s) remains unanswered?

54. (RL2) What are the two central ideas discussed in this passage?
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

Part II Chapter 16
I was beginning to notice the subtle change in my father these days, that came out when he talked with Aunt
Alexandra. It was a quiet digging in, never outright irritation. There was a faint starchiness in his voice when he
said, “Anything fit to say at the table’s fit to say in front of Calpurnia. She knows what she means to this family.”
“I don't think it's a good habit, Atticus. It encourages them. You know how they talk among themselves.
Everything that happens in this town’s out to the Quarters before sundown.”
My father put down his knife. “I don't know of any law that says they can't talk. Maybe if we didn't give
them so much to talk about they’d be quiet. Why don't you drink your coffee, Scout?”
I was playing in it with a spoon. “I thought Mr. Cunningham was a friend of ours. You told me a long time
ago he was.”
“He still is.”
“But last night he wanted to hurt you.”
Atticus placed his fork beside his knife and pushed his plate aside. “Mr. Cunningham’s basically a good
man,” he said, “he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us.”

55. (RL1) Which sentence best supports the idea that people can be respectable even though they are
flawed?

56. (RL4) What is the definition of the term subtle as the word is used in the opening line?

57. (RL1) What is most likely causing the subtle change in Atticus?

58. (RL2) Which of the following ideas should be included in an objective summary of this passage?

59. (RL1) Which of the following questions remains unanswered?

Part II Chapter 17

“ . . . Robert E. Lee Ewell!"

In answer to the clerk's booming voice, a little bantam cock of a man rose and strutted to the stand, the
back of his neck reddening at the sound of his name. When he turned around to take the oath, we thought that
his face was as red as his neck. We also saw no resemblance to his namesake. A shock of wispy new-washed hair
stood up from his forehead; his nose was thin, pointed, and shiny; he had no chin to speak of—it seemed to be
part of his crepey neck.
"—so help me God,” he crowed.
Every town the size of Maycomb had families like the Ewells. No economic fluctuations changed their status
—people like the Ewells lived as guests of the county in prosperity as well as in the depths of a depression. No
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test
truant officers could keep their numerous offspring in school; no public health officer could free them from
congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to filthy surroundings.
Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin.

60. (RL1) How do changes in the economy tend to affect families like the Ewells?

61. (RL3) To which animal is Robert Ewell compared in this passage?

62. (RL3) Which traits of Robert Ewell’s are highlighted by the comparison to the animal?

63. (RL3) What does the Ewell’s home environment suggest about the family?

64. (RL1) Where does Robert Ewell live?

65. (RL4) Which terms help to establish the writer’s tone of disgust toward the Ewells?

Part II Chapter 18
“Did you scream first at your father instead of at Tom Robinson? Was that it?”
No answer.
“Who beat you up? Tom Robinson or your father?"
No answer.
"What did your father see in the window, the crime of rape or the best defense to it? Why don't you tell the
truth, child, didn't Bob Ewell beat you up?"
When Atticus turned away from Mayella he looked like his stomach hurt, but Mayella’s face was a mixture
of terror and fury. Atticus sat down wearily and polished his glasses with his handkerchief.
Suddenly Mayella became articulate. "I got somethin’ to say,” she said.
Atticus raised his head. “Do you want to tell us what happened?"
But she did not hear the compassion in his invitation. “I got somethin’ to say an’ then I ain’t gonna say no
more. That nigger yonder took advantage of me an’ if you fine fancy gentleman don't want to do nothin’ about it
then you're all yellow stinkin’ cowards, stinkin’ cowards, the lot of you. Your fancy airs don't come to nothin’—
your ma'amin’ and Miss Mayellerin’ don't come to nothin’, Mr. Finch—"
Then she burst into real tears.

66. (RL1) Who does Atticus suggest is the person who harmed Mayella based on his opening questions?

67. (RL1) Why doesn’t Mayella answer the opening questions?

D. She thinks that Atticus is speaking to someone else.

68. (RL3) How does Atticus appear to feel just after questioning Mayella here?
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test
69. (RL4) Which comment expresses Mayella’s tone toward the men of the court?

70. (RL3) Which word and symbol best capture Atticus’s tone when he says, “Do you want to tell us what
happened”?

Part II Chapter 21
A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at
Tom Robinson. The foreman handed a piece of paper to Mr. Tate who handed it to the clerk who handed it to
the judge. . . .
I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury: "Guilty . . . guilty . . . guilty . . . guilty . . . " I peeked at Jem:
his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each “guilty” was a separate
stab between.
Judge Taylor was saying something. His gavel was in his fist, but he wasn't using it. Dimly, I saw Atticus
pushing papers from the table into his briefcase. He snapped it shut, went to the court reporter and said
something, nodded to Mr. Gilmer, and then went to Tom Robinson and whispered something to him. Atticus put
his hand on Tom's shoulder as he whispered. Atticus took his coat off the back of his chair and pulled it over his
shoulder. Then he left the courtroom, but not by his usual exit. He must've wanted to go home the short way,
because he walked quickly down the middle aisle toward the south exit. I followed the top of his head as he made
his way to the door. He did not look up.
Someone was punching me, but I was reluctant to take my eyes from the people below us and from the
image of Atticus’s lonely walk down the aisle.
“Miss Jean Louise?"
I looked around. They were standing. All around us and in the balcony on the opposite wall the Negroes
were getting to their feet. Reverend Sykes’s voice was as distant as Judge Taylor’s:
“Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'."

71. (RL1) Why didn’t the members of the jury look at Tom Robinson when they entered the courtroom?

72. What is Jem’s tone regarding the verdict?

73. (RL3) The blacks in the balcony are motivated by _______________ when they stand as Atticus leaves.

74. (RL4) What does the term reluctant mean as the word is used in this context?

75. (RL1) Which of the following questions remains unanswered?

To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test
Part II Chapter 22
“We’re the safest folks in the world,” said Miss Maudie. “We’re so rarely called on to be Christians, but when
we are, we’ve got men like Atticus to go for us.”
Jem grinned ruefully. “Wish the rest of the county thought that.”
“You’d be surprised how many of us do.”
“Who?” Jem’s voice rose. “Who in this town did one thing to help Tom Robinson, just who?”
“His colored friends for one thing, and people like us. People like Judge Taylor. People like Mr. Heck Tate.
Stop eating and start thinking, Jem. Did it ever strike you that Judge Taylor naming Atticus to defend that boy
was no accident? That Judge Taylor might have had his reasons for naming him?”
This was a thought. Court-appointed defenses were usually given to Maxwell Green, Maycomb’s latest
addition to the bar, who needed the experience. Maxwell Green should have had Tom Robinson’s case.
“You think about that,” Miss Maudie was saying. “It was no accident. I was sittin’ there on the porch last
night, waiting. I waited and waited to see you all come down the sidewalk, and as I waited I thought, Atticus
Finch won't win, he can't win, but he's the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like
that. And I thought to myself, well, we're making a step—it's just a baby-step, but it's a step.
“’t's all right to talk like that—can't any Christian judges an’ lawyers make up for heathen juries,” Jem
muttered. “Soon’s I get grown—"
“That's something you'll have to take up with your father,” Miss Maudie said.

76. (RL1) What is Miss Maudie’s opinion of Atticus’s lost case?

77. (RL3) Which best describes Miss Maudie’s tone toward the concept of justice here

78. (RL2) Which of the following topics must be included in an objective summary of this passage?

79. (RL3) With which of the following statements would Miss Maudie most likely agree?

80. (RL1) What does Miss Maudie attempt to help Jem understand?

Part II Chapter 24
“Cal,” Atticus said, “I want you to go with me out to Helen Robinson's house—"
“What's the matter?” Aunt Alexandra asked, alarmed by the look on my father's face.
“Tom’s dead.”
Aunt Alexandra put her hands to her mouth.
“They shot him,” said Atticus. “He was running. It was during their exercise period. They said he just broke
into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over. Right in front of them—"
“Didn't they try to stop him? Didn't they give him any warning?” Aunt Alexandra's voice shook.
“Oh yes, the guards called him to stop. They fired a few shots in the air, then to kill. They got him just as he
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test
went over the fence. They said if he'd had two good arms he’d have made it, he was moving that fast. Seventeen
bullet holes in him. They didn't have to shoot him that much. Cal, I want you to come out with me and help me
tell Helen.”
“Yes sir,” she murmured, fumbling at her apron. Miss Maudie went to Calpurnia and untied it.
“This is the last straw, Atticus,” Aunt Alexandra said.
“Depends on how you look at it,” he said. “What was one Negro, more or less, among two hundred of ‘em?
He wasn't Tom to them, he was an escaping prisoner.”
Atticus leaned against the refrigerator, pushed up his glasses, and rubbed his eyes. “We had such a good
chance,” he said. “I told him what I thought, but I couldn't in truth say that we had more than a good chance. I
guess Tom was tired of white men's chances and preferred to take his own. Ready, Cal?”

81. (RL1) Why is Atticus going to Helen Robinson’s house?

82. (RL1) Why does Atticus want Calpurnia to go with him?

83. (RL1) What does Aunt Alexandra most likely mean when she says, “This is the last straw, Atticus”?

84. (RL4) Which sentence helps to establish Atticus’s tone of sarcasm and disgust with Tom’s fate?

85. (RL3) Which of the following describes Tom Robinson’s motive for trying to escape?

86. (RL2) Which of the following themes is NOT directly supported by this passage?

Part II Chapter 25

Mr. B. B. Underwood was at his most bitter, and he couldn't have cared less who canceled advertising and
subscriptions. (But Maycomb didn't play that way: Mr. Underwood could holler till he sweated and write
whatever he wanted to, he’d still get his advertising and subscriptions. If he wanted to make a fool of himself in
his paper that was his business.) Mr. Underwood didn't talk about miscarriages of justice, he was writing so
children could understand. Mr. Underwood simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or
escaping. He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children, and Maycomb
thought he was trying to write an editorial poetical enough to be reprinted in The Montgomery Advertiser.
How could this be so, I wondered, as I read Mr. Underwood's editorial. Senseless killing—Tom had been
given due process of law to the day of his death; he had been tried openly and convicted by twelve good men and
true; my father had fought for him all the way. Then Mr. Underwood’s meaning became clear: Atticus had used
every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no
case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.
To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

87. (RL1) Which comment best expresses Mr. Underwood’s opinion of Tom Robinson’s situation?

88. (RL1) Why does Mr. Underwood write so that children can understand?

89. (RL1) Why does Mr. Underwood think that some people may decide to cancel advertising and
subscriptions?

90. (RL1) Why doesn’t Mr. Underwood discuss “miscarriages of justice” in the editorial?

91. (RL4) The passage states that Mr. Underwood “likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds
by hunters and children . . .” Which word is the most accurate replacement of likened as the term is used here?

92. (RL5) This passage is presented toward the end of the novel. Why might the author have chosen to
include this passage at this point of the narrative?

93. (RL2) A student has been instructed to write a summary of this passage by including the most
important points. Which of the following points must be included in the student’s notes?

Part II Chapter 30
Mr. Tate was trying to dig a hole in the floor with the toe of his boot. He pulled his nose, then he
massaged his left arm. “I may not be much, Mr. Finch, but I'm still sheriff of Maycomb County and
Bob Ewell fell on his knife. Good night, sir."
Mr. Tate stamped off the porch and strode across the front yard. His car door slammed and he
drove away.
Atticus sat looking at the floor for a long time. Finally he raised his head. “Scout,” he said, “Mr.
Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?”
Atticus looked like he needed cheering up. I ran to him and hugged him and kissed him with all
my might. “Yes sir, I understand,” I reassured him. “Mr. Tate was right.”
Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?”
Atticus put his face in my hair and rubbed it. When he got up and walked across the porch into
the shadows, his youthful step had returned. Before he went inside the house, he stopped in front of
Boo Radley. “Thank you for my children, Arthur,” he said.

94. (RL1) Why does Scout hug and kiss Atticus?

To Kill A Mockingbird Unit Test

95. (RL2) Summarize the passage?

96. (RL1) Who is the sheriff of Maycomb County?

97. (RL3) What tone toward Boo Radley does Atticus show here?

98. (RL6) When Atticus says, “Scout, Mr. Ewell fell on his knife,” which best explains his statement?

99. (RL5) Which of the novel’s key plot lines come together in this passage?

100. (RL4) Who is the referenced ‘mockingbird’ in this passage?