East of Eden, Chapter 10 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why does Charles refuse to spend any of the money Cyrus left the brothers?

   • He wants Adam to spend his own share first
   • He is saving every dollar to buy the Clark place
   • Correct answer: He is afraid he may have to give it all back
   • He has already promised it to the village church

   Charles suspects the fortune was dishonestly gained, and he is troubled that their father left no papers or account books behind.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What sets off the argument that drives Adam off the farm the first time?

   • Charles sells part of the farm without asking Adam
   • Adam refuses to help pay for more farm land
   • Charles refuses to travel to their father's grave
   • Correct answer: Adam objects to jam left smeared in the butter

   The fight is trivial on its surface. Adam snaps about the dirty knife, Charles tells him to get off the place, and Adam leaves.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Where does Adam say he spent his first eight-month absence?

   • New York, where he looked for steady work
   • Correct answer: Boston, where he only looked at the city
   • Washington, where their father is buried
   • California, where he looked at farmland

   Adam gives Charles almost nothing: he says he went to Boston, no place else, and just looked at the city.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Which place does Adam keep urging on Charles as an alternative to the farm?

   • Correct answer: California, where he says there is no winter
   • The South Seas, where Charles says to go
   • Boston, where he spent his first absence
   • Argentina, which he later visits by ship

   Adam repeats that California has no winter and that anything will grow there, until the subject finally breaks Charles's temper.

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5. 5

   Question 5. From which two places does Charles receive postcards while Adam is away the second time?

   • Boston and New York City
   • Correct answer: Rio and Buenos Aires
   • Havana and Mexico City
   • Lisbon and Barcelona

   A colored postcard of the bay at Rio arrives after three months, and a card from Buenos Aires six months later promises a book that never comes.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What reason does Adam call the most important for escaping three days before his sentence ended?

   • Correct answer: He felt he genuinely owed the state the full time
   • He had learned that his brother was seriously ill
   • He was told his sentence was about to be extended
   • He had been promised work across the state line

   Adam gives three reasons but calls this one hardest to explain: he did not feel right about cheating, so he took only three days off what he owed.

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7. 7

   Question 7. How does Charles respond when Adam confesses that he escaped from a road gang?

   • He orders Adam off the farm that same night
   • He refuses to believe a word of the story
   • He threatens to turn Adam in to the sheriff
   • Correct answer: He is proud of it and asks to hear more

   After a moment of disbelief Charles decides his brother does not lie, laughs, says it makes him kind of proud, and asks about the road gang.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 10?

   • The brothers travel to Washington to stand at Cyrus's grave.

     Happened

     They "traveled together to Washington to look at the grave," stood by it a long time, and then did not mention Cyrus.

   • Adam mails Charles a postcard from Buenos Aires.

     Happened

     Six months after a picture postcard of the bay at Rio, "another card, from Buenos Aires" arrives, promising a book that never comes.

   • Charles agrees to build a new house with a bathtub and running water.

     Didn't happen

     When Adam suggests a new house with a bathtub and running water, Charles answers, "We don’t need a new house."

   • Adam hands Charles the hundred dollars back the same evening.

     Didn't happen

     Adam promises, "I’ll pay you in the morning," and then tells Charles why he needed the money.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which statements about the brothers' years together in this chapter are true?

   • Adam starts keeping a set of books for the farm after he returns.

     Happened

     After his eight months away, "Adam kept the house clean and started a set of books on the farm."

   • Charles gets breakfast ready before waking Adam once they reconcile.

     Happened

     "Charles, always the early riser, got breakfast ready before he awakened Adam."

   • Charles sells the village inn to help buy the Clark place.

     Didn't happen

     The chapter shows no sale: Adam says Charles has "bought four buildings and the inn in the village."

   • Adam brings home a wife from his travels in South America.

     Didn't happen

     Adam comes back alone, "brown and his clothes had a foreign look"; no wife is mentioned.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'incipient' mean in the chapter's opening line about 'a kind of shabby neatness out of incipient rage at each other'?

    • Long ago forgotten
    • Carefully hidden from view
    • Correct answer: Just beginning to develop
    • Openly violent and loud

    Incipient describes something in its earliest stage. The narrator says two men living together are "constantly on the verge of fighting," and the brothers' tensions soon begin to build.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'reveille' mean when Adam complains that 'here I get up a half-hour before reveille'?

    • A soldier's first day of leave
    • The roll call taken before a march
    • Correct answer: The bugle call that wakes soldiers
    • The evening meal in an army camp

    Reveille is the morning bugle call in the army. Adam's joke is that he now rises even earlier as a free civilian than he did as a soldier.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'relapsed' mean in the line that 'finally they relapsed into the long ugly silences'?

    • Broke out in sudden laughter
    • Settled a long-standing quarrel
    • Grew used to a new routine
    • Correct answer: Slipped back into a former state

    To relapse is to fall back into an earlier and usually worse condition, which is exactly what the brothers' truce does.

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