East of Eden, Chapter 35 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Where does Lee move Adam and the twins at the start of Chapter 35?

   • Into rooms above a Main Street store
   • Back to the old Hamilton ranch
   • Correct answer: Into Dessie's little house in Salinas
   • Into a boarding house in San Francisco

   Lee handles the entire move himself and settles the family in Dessie's little house in Salinas.

   Read the passage
2. 2

   Question 2. How does Adam respond when Lee formally comes to him to resign?

   • Correct answer: He cuts Lee off, saying he expected this
   • He insists Lee wait until spring to go
   • He offers Lee higher wages to stay on
   • He walks out rather than discuss it

   Perhaps catching Lee's intention from his coldness and formality, Adam says he has been expecting it, which breaks up the speech Lee had memorized.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why does Lee want to leave as soon as possible?

   • His train ticket is already bought and dated
   • A replacement cook arrives that same week
   • Adam has asked him to be gone by morning
   • Correct answer: He is afraid he will lose his intention

   Lee says he might lose his intention if he does not go soon; when he offers to wait until Adam finds someone else, Adam answers that he had better not.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How do Cal and Aron take the news that Lee is leaving for good?

   • They follow Lee to the depot to see him off
   • Correct answer: They talk about basketball and sausage buns
   • They cry and beg him to stay
   • They refuse to speak to Adam for days

   Cal asks whether they can go to a ten-cent basketball game and Aron describes the nickel sausage buns sold on Main Street, then both shout goodbye and run out.

   Read the passage
5. 5

   Question 5. What does Lee leave behind in the Salinas house besides fifty cents?

   • Correct answer: His books, still boxed in the cellar
   • His telescope basket, tied shut with rope
   • His stone bottle of ng-ka-py
   • A letter explaining his decision

   He takes only a telescope basket and asks to send for the boxed books once he is settled, a detail that hints he is not fully committed to going.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What bet do the twins make walking home from the basketball game?

   • Aron bets Lee will open his store by spring
   • Cal bets Adam will hire a cook within a week
   • Correct answer: Aron bets ten cents that Lee will come back
   • Cal bets a dollar that Lee will write to them

   Cal bets ten cents that Lee will never return and Aron takes the other side. Aron wins six days later, though he cannot collect for nearly a month.

   Read the passage
7. 7

   Question 7. What is Adam doing when Lee lets himself back into the house?

   • Writing an advertisement for a new cook
   • Correct answer: Scraping burned crust from a frying pan
   • Eating a late supper with the twins
   • Reading alone in the lighted dining room

   Lee finds him in the kitchen attacking a thick black crust with the point of a can opener, having burned everything he cooked.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What reason does Lee finally give for abandoning the bookstore?

   • He was robbed of his savings in San Francisco
   • The lease fell through at the last minute
   • He heard the twins had gotten into trouble
   • Correct answer: He got lonesome and no longer wants it

   Lee says nothing happened to him except loneliness, and that he suspects he knew he did not want a bookstore before the train ever left.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 35?

   • Lee packs, ships, and unpacks the family's belongings himself.

     Happened

     The narrator says Lee did it all: he packed, saw the things on the train, loaded the Ford and unpacked in Dessie's little house.

   • Adam walks Lee to the depot and waits with him for the train.

     Didn't happen

     Adam offers to walk to the depot with him, but Lee sharply refuses and hurries out of the house alone.

   • Lee leaves fifty cents so the twins can buy sausage buns.

     Happened

     Lee lays fifty cents on the table and asks Adam to give it to the boys for sausage buns at the basketball game.

   • Adam hires a replacement cook before Lee departs.

     Didn't happen

     Adam tells Lee not to wait for a replacement because he is slow and might never get around to it, and six days later he is still cooking for himself.

   Read the passage
10. 10

    Question 10. Which of these happen on the night Lee returns?

    • Lee makes coffee in a skillet because it is faster.

      Happened

      Lee brings in two cups and explains that he made the coffee in a skillet because it is much faster.

    • Lee asks Adam whether he has ever taken the ashes out of the stove.

      Happened

      When Adam says the stove won't burn, Lee lifts a lid and asks whether he has ever taken the ashes out; Adam can only repeat the word.

    • Lee confesses he lost his money in a fan-tan game.

      Didn't happen

      Losing money at fan-tan is only Adam's guess; Lee answers that he still has his money.

    • Lee promises to try the bookstore again next year.

      Didn't happen

      Lee says he does not want a bookstore at all and calls the end of that dream good riddance.

    Read the passage
11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'ptomaine' mean in Lee's joke, "My farewell gift may be ptomaine, for all I know"?

    • Correct answer: Food poisoning
    • An unpaid debt
    • A parting insult
    • A blessing said at leaving

    Ptomaine is an outdated word for food poisoning. Lee is joking that the sausage buns his fifty cents buys may make the boys sick.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'small-souled' mean when Lee says, "I hope I'm not so small-souled as to take satisfaction in being missed"?

    • Quiet and modest
    • Easily frightened
    • Correct answer: Petty and mean-spirited
    • Physically frail

    Small-souled means petty or ungenerous. Lee is saying he does not want to enjoy the boys' grief as proof of his own importance.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does 'hysteria' mean in the line, "Lee seemed on the verge of hysteria"?

    • Cold indifference
    • Correct answer: Uncontrollable emotion
    • Careful calculation
    • Physical exhaustion

    Hysteria is emotion that has slipped past control. The narration uses it just as Lee dodges into pidgin rather than admit how much he needs the family.

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