East of Eden, Chapter 13 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why is Adam sent to see Samuel Hamilton?

   • Correct answer: Because Samuel is a water witch and well-digger who knows the valley's water
   • Because Samuel is the only man willing to sell land beside the river
   • Because Samuel handles the legal papers for land sales in the county
   • Because Samuel is the doctor who has been treating Adam's wife

   A rancher in the King City hotel lobby tells Adam that Samuel knows more about water than anybody around and has put down half the wells in that part of the valley.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why does Adam sell his share of the Trask farm to Charles for less than it is worth?

   • Their father's will required the land to be sold cheaply
   • Charles threatens him during an argument about the money
   • Correct answer: He is too caught up in his new life with Cathy to care
   • The farm has been failing for several bad seasons

   Adam is carried away by his new life with Cathy and takes less than the land is worth; with his half of his father's money he is rich anyway.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What does Dr. Tilson find in Cathy's hotel room?

   • A bottle of poison hidden among her clothes
   • Correct answer: A knitting needle she had used on herself
   • A letter that reveals something about her past
   • A prescription written by another doctor

   He looks around the room, picks a knitting needle off the bureau, and shakes it in her face, calling it the old offender.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How does Cathy get Dr. Tilson to promise not to tell her husband what she did?

   • She promises to give the baby to Mrs. Laurel, who is longing for one
   • She offers him money from Adam's fortune to keep the matter quiet
   • She threatens to accuse him of harming her during the examination
   • Correct answer: She claims epilepsy runs in her family and she could not pass it on

   Cathy's claim of an inherited taint casts her act as sparing Adam; the doctor's anger gives way to pity, and he says, "I won't tell your husband what you did."

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why does Tom Hamilton drag his mother's sofa away from the house?

   • He had promised to lend it to the Peach Tree schoolhouse for the dance
   • Correct answer: His brothers had taken every vehicle, leaving him only a hay rake
   • He wanted to give his brothers something to laugh about
   • The Williams sisters had asked him to bring somewhere to sit

   George took the rig, Will the buggy, and Joe the two-wheeled cart, so Tom took the doubletree off the hay rake and hitched horses to the sofa instead.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does Samuel say that unsettles Adam just before he leaves the ranch?

   • That Adam should bring his wife out to the Hamilton ranch to rest
   • That the Sanchez place has no water worth the digging
   • That Adam would do better to settle farther north
   • Correct answer: That he feels a blackness and a black violence on the valley

   Samuel's hopeful account of the valley's future breaks off into a sense of blackness he cannot explain, and Adam shivers and says he just remembered a promise to get back early.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What first turns Adam's attention toward the Salinas Valley?

   • Cathy's wish to live somewhere near the coast
   • Advice from a land agent he met while buying clothes in New York
   • Correct answer: A color broadside the railroads printed to advertise the valley
   • A letter from a man he had served with in the army

   The railroads issued booklets and broadsides advertising the West, and Adam studied one that set forth the valley in extravagant terms.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 13?

   • Adam sells his half of the farm to Charles and takes the train west.

     Happened

     Adam sells his share to Charles "for less than it was worth," and the brothers shake hands at the station as the train pulls out.

   • Cathy tells Adam she is pregnant before the doctor does.

     Didn't happen

     Dr. Tilson gives Adam the news in the hotel lobby: "Your wife is going to have a baby."

   • Charles goes to the inn after the train leaves and cannot perform with the girl.

     Happened

     Charles drinks "four quick whiskies" at the inn, pays the girl, and "then could not perform."

   • Adam and Samuel Hamilton first meet at the Bordoni ranch.

     Didn't happen

     They first meet at the Hamilton ranch, where Samuel stands waiting in front of his shop.

   • Adam buys the Sanchez place the day after his visit to the Hamiltons.

     Happened

     Adam "struggled all night with his thoughts and the next day" shook hands with Bordoni, and the Sanchez place was his.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these details about Adam's visit to the Hamilton ranch are accurate?

   • Louis Lippo tells Adam to leave the whiskey under the seat until they reach the shop.

     Happened

     Louis warns that Mrs. Hamilton "has got a skunner on it" and tells Adam, "Just you leave the bottle under the seat."

   • Samuel refuses payment for the angle irons he forges.

     Happened

     When Louis asks the price, Samuel answers, "The pleasure of your company."

   • Adam stays and eats dinner with the Hamilton family.

     Didn't happen

     Liza is cooking for them, but after Samuel speaks of a "black violence on this valley" Adam leaves early to get back to Cathy.

   • Samuel shakes Adam's hand the moment he steps down from the buckboard.

     Didn't happen

     Samuel tells him, "We'll shake another time. I wouldn't soil your hand with these forge hooks."

   • Samuel says he can develop water nearly everywhere except his own place.

     Happened

     Asked whether he could develop water, Samuel says, "Nearly every place except my own."

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'listless' mean as used in: "She rode around the country with him, but she was listless."?

    • Correct answer: Lacking energy, interest, or the will to act
    • Easily frightened by strangers and new places
    • Physically strong, tireless, and full of vigor
    • Talkative, restless, and unable to keep still

    Listless means drained of energy or enthusiasm, and Cathy's flatness is the first sign that she is not well.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'noncommittal' mean as used in: "he didn't listen to her noncommittal answers"?

    • Cheerful, eager, and openly enthusiastic in tone
    • Correct answer: Deliberately vague, expressing no clear opinion
    • Angry, bitter, and full of accusation
    • Carefully detailed, precise, and exact

    A noncommittal answer avoids taking any position, and Adam mistakes Cathy's evasions for shared enthusiasm.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'hard-pan' mean as used in: "there's a layer called hard-pan"?

    • The gravel bed of a dried-up river
    • A shallow iron pan used for cooking over a forge
    • Correct answer: A dense clay layer that water cannot soak through
    • A tough grass that survives long droughts

    Hard-pan is packed clay lying beneath the topsoil, and because rain cannot get through it the winter water runs off or stands rotting on top.

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