The Fir-Tree quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary genres best describe "The Fir-Tree"?

   • Correct answer: Literary Fairy Tale & Fable
   • Science Fiction & Fantasy
   • Mystery & Detective Story
   • Historical Fiction & War
   • Romance & Courtship

   Literary Fairy Tale & Fable is the best fit. Andersen invented the story himself, as literary fairy tales are, and like a fable it gives a talking tree and animals human feelings in order to teach a lesson about valuing the present.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does the young fir want most at the start?

   • To be cut down soon and carried out of the woods
   • Correct answer: To be a grown-up tree as tall as the others
   • To have the cottage children play beneath him
   • To be planted in a sunnier part of the forest

   "Oh, were I but such a high tree as the others are!" He ignores the sun, the fresh air, and the children who admire him.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Which animal jumps right over the little tree in winter?

   • A squirrel
   • A fox
   • A deer
   • Correct answer: A hare

   "A hare would often come leaping along, and jump right over the little Tree. Oh, that made him so angry!"

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does the Stork think happens to the big trees that are cut down?

   • They are burned to keep the poor warm in winter
   • They are planted again in a royal garden far away
   • Correct answer: They become masts on ships that sail the sea
   • They are used to build new houses in the town

   "I met many ships as I was flying hither from Egypt; on the ships were magnificent masts." He is sure they smelled of fir.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does "Hither" mean in this story?

   • Long ago
   • Correct answer: To this place
   • Far away
   • Very quickly

   "I met many ships as I was flying hither from Egypt." Hither is an old word meaning here, to this place; its opposite, whither, means to what place.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What advice do the Sunbeams and the Air give the tree?

   • To leave the forest and fly across the sea
   • To grow faster so he can be cut down sooner
   • To ask the Sparrows about the warm rooms in town
   • Correct answer: To rejoice in his fresh youth and growth now

   "Rejoice in thy growth!" said the Sunbeams, and the Air and Sunlight urge, "rejoice in thy own fresh youth!" But the Tree did not rejoice at all.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What do the Sparrows say they have seen?

   • Correct answer: Trees decorated in warm rooms with lights and toys
   • Trees planted in the beautiful gardens of the king's palace
   • Trees floating down the river to the busy harbour
   • Trees cut into firewood for the bakers in town

   They saw the young trees "planted in the middle of the warm room, and ornamented with the most splendid things—with gilded apples, with gingerbread, with toys, and many hundred lights!"

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does the tree believe will come after being a Christmas tree?

   • That the Sparrows have been telling him lies
   • That Christmas will be the last day of his life
   • Correct answer: That something better and grander must follow
   • That he will be sent back to the forest in spring

   "Something better, something still grander, MUST follow—but what?" He cannot imagine simply enjoying the splendour itself.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Why does the tree catch fire when the candles are lit?

   • The servants hang the tapers too near the stove
   • A spark flies from the porcelain stove nearby
   • Correct answer: He trembles so hard a taper sets him alight
   • A child knocks over one of the lighted candles

   "The Tree trembled so in every bough that one of the tapers set fire to the foliage." After that he does not even dare tremble.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does "Plunder" mean in this story?

    • To admire
    • Correct answer: To strip by force
    • To protect
    • To decorate

    "The children had permission to plunder the tree. So they fell upon it with such violence that all its branches cracked." To plunder is to grab and carry off by force.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What is fixed at the very top of the tree?

    • Correct answer: A star of gold tinsel
    • A paper angel
    • A silver bell
    • A wax candle

    "At the very top a large star of gold tinsel was fixed."

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12. 12

    Question 12. What is the story of Klumpy-Dumpy about?

    • A mouse who found the finest larder in all the land
    • A hare who learned to fly across the sea
    • A tree who became the mast of a king's ship
    • Correct answer: A man who fell downstairs and married a princess

    "Klumpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet he married the princess!" The tree hopes he might fall and win a princess too.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does the tree believe about being put in the loft?

    • He knows he has been thrown away and forgotten
    • Correct answer: He thinks people are keeping him safe until spring
    • He believes he is being punished for catching fire
    • He hopes the children will come to play with him

    "Men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been put up here under shelter till the springtime comes! How thoughtful that is!" It is an ironic mistake.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What does "Reverie" mean in this story?

    • Sudden fright
    • Bitter anger
    • Correct answer: Dreamy thought
    • Loud complaint

    "He leaned against the wall, lost in reverie." A reverie is a dreamy state of being lost in one's own thoughts.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What do the mice first ask the tree to tell them about?

    • Correct answer: The most beautiful place, such as a larder
    • The way back to the forest where he once grew
    • The names of the children in the house
    • The price of the toys on his branches

    "Tell us about the most beautiful spot on the earth." To them that means the larder, where cheeses lie on the shelves and hams hang from above.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What does the tree realize while telling his story in the loft?

    • He will surely be planted in the forest next spring
    • He was foolish to listen to the Sparrows
    • The rats know far better stories than his
    • Correct answer: He was happy on Christmas Eve and did not know it

    "I heard it on my happiest evening; but I did not then know how happy I was."

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17. 17

    Question 17. What does the tree find when he is brought out into the courtyard?

    • Covered in new candles for another party
    • Hung with nests built by the swallows
    • Correct answer: Withered and yellow among the weeds
    • Green and fresh again, ready to be planted

    He spreads out his branches to enjoy the spring, "but, alas! they were all withered and yellow." He lies in a corner "among weeds and nettles."

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18. 18

    Question 18. What does the tree regret most at the end?

    • That the children should not have taken his star
    • Correct answer: That he did not rejoice when he had reason to
    • That he never got to cross the sea as a mast
    • That the mice stopped coming to hear his tales

    "Had I but rejoiced when I had reason to do so! But now 'tis past, 'tis past!"

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19. 19

    Question 19. What is the central theme of the story?

    • Correct answer: Value the present before it passes
    • Trees are happiest in warm houses
    • Children should share their toys
    • Old stories are better than new ones

    The tree always longs for the next thing and recognizes his happy times only after they are gone, which is why "every tale must end at last" lands so hard.

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20. 20

    Question 20. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • The Swallows know exactly where the felled trees are taken.

      Didn't happen

      "The Swallows did not know anything about it"; only the Stork has a guess.

    • The tree is stuck upright in a cask filled with sand and hidden by green cloth.

      Happened

      No one could see the cask, "for green cloth was hung all around it."

    • The old nurse peeps between the branches to admire the tree.

      Didn't happen

      She looks only "to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been forgotten."

    • The tree dreams of a little Birch-tree as his princess.

      Happened

      He thinks of "a nice little Birch-tree growing out in the woods" as a charming princess.

    • Two rats come to hear the tree's stories on a Sunday.

      Happened

      "On Sunday two Rats, even" came, but found the stories dull.

    • The tree is replanted in the garden beside the lindens.

      Didn't happen

      The gardener's boy chops him into small pieces and he is burned.

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