To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 2 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Where is Miss Caroline Fisher originally from?

   • Montgomery, central Alabama
   • Mobile County, southern Alabama
   • Meridian, eastern Mississippi
   • Correct answer: Winston County, northern Alabama

   Miss Caroline is from Winston County, a region of northern Alabama that remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, making her a cultural outsider in Maycomb.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why does Miss Caroline become upset when Scout reads aloud?

   • Miss Caroline believes Scout is deliberately showing off to embarrass her before the entire class
   • Miss Caroline believes Scout has been reading newspapers that are unsuitable for a young child
   • Correct answer: Miss Caroline believes Atticus has taught Scout improperly and it will interfere with the curriculum
   • Miss Caroline believes Jem has been secretly tutoring Scout so she can advance ahead of her classmates

   Miss Caroline tells Scout that her father does not know how to teach and that his methods will interfere with her learning under the approved educational system.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why does Walter Cunningham refuse Miss Caroline's quarter?

   • Correct answer: His family never accepts what they cannot repay
   • His father has forbidden him to visit town unaccompanied
   • He expects his family to deliver his lunch later
   • He already brought his lunch in a molasses bucket

   The Cunninghams follow a strict personal code: they never take anything they cannot pay back. Since Walter knows his family cannot afford to repay the quarter, he refuses it.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How does the Cunningham family pay Atticus for legal services?

   • With cash payments in small installments annually
   • Correct answer: With farm goods like hickory nuts, turnip greens, and firewood
   • With bushels of potatoes, the way Dr. Reynolds is paid
   • With livestock like hogs, chickens, and a young milk cow

   Being land-rich but cash-poor, the Cunninghams settle debts with whatever crops and goods they can produce rather than with money.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does Jem call Miss Caroline's new way of teaching?

   • Correct answer: The Dewey Decimal System
   • Classical grammar instruction
   • Socratic questioning
   • The Montessori Method

   Jem confuses John Dewey's progressive education philosophy with the Dewey Decimal library cataloging system, and Scout, who never questions Jem, repeats the mix-up. Lee uses this to satirize the blind adoption of educational fads.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How does Miss Caroline punish Scout at the end of the chapter?

   • She makes Scout copy the alphabet repeatedly on a tablet
   • Correct answer: She pats Scout's palm several times with a ruler
   • She orders Scout to report the incident to Atticus
   • She banishes Scout to Miss Blount's sixth-grade classroom

   After Scout keeps explaining the Cunninghams, Miss Caroline grabs her by the collar, hauls her to the desk, pats her palm half a dozen times with a ruler, and then makes her stand in the corner.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does Miss Caroline read to the class at the beginning of the day?

   • Stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register
   • An adventure story about Tarzan and the Ant Men
   • Correct answer: A whimsical story about cats in domestic settings
   • A Bible chapter describing the creation of animals

   Miss Caroline reads a story about cats living in peculiar domestic arrangements, which bewilders the rural children because the scenario is entirely disconnected from their real-life experience.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Who does Scout say is really to blame for her ability to write?

   • Jem Finch
   • Miss Rachel, a neighbor
   • Atticus Finch
   • Correct answer: Calpurnia

   Miss Caroline tells Scout to have her father stop teaching her, but Scout says Calpurnia was to blame: on rainy days Calpurnia set her writing tasks, copying the alphabet and a chapter of the Bible onto a tablet.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually happened in this chapter?

   • Miss Caroline praised Scout for her advanced reading ability.

     Didn't happen

     Miss Caroline did not praise Scout. Instead, she looked at her with distaste and told Scout that her father does not know how to teach, ordering her to tell him to stop teaching her.

   • Walter Cunningham refused Miss Caroline's offer of a quarter for lunch.

     Happened

     Walter shook his head again and again and politely declined, but never explained why he could not accept the money. Scout explains that the Cunninghams never take anything they cannot pay back.

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10. 10

    Question 10. In Chapter 2, what does "entailment" refer to in the context of the Cunningham family?

    • Correct answer: A legal restriction on property that prevents its sale or transfer
    • A logical consequence that follows necessarily from a statement
    • A claim a lender holds on land until the loan is fully repaid
    • A formal agreement to pay off a debt in regular installments

    An entailment is a legal restriction that limits how property can be inherited or disposed of. Part of the Cunningham land is entailed, but that is only one of Mr. Cunningham's troubles: the rest is mortgaged and his little cash goes to interest.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does "condescended" mean in "Jem condescended to take me to school"?

    • Descended or walked down from a higher position
    • Volunteered enthusiastically to help someone else
    • Refused stubbornly to perform an assigned duty
    • Correct answer: Agreed to do something he considered beneath him

    To condescend is to do something while making it clear that you consider it beneath your dignity. Jem, a fifth grader, treats walking his little sister to school as a favor, a job usually done by parents.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does "indigenous" mean in "peculiarities indigenous to that region"?

    • Foreign to or imported from a distant place
    • Poor and lacking the basic necessities of life
    • Correct answer: Native to or originating in a particular place
    • Widespread and customary throughout the nation

    Indigenous means native or originating in a particular place. Scout uses it for the odd traits the class expects from North Alabama, Miss Caroline's home region, which makes the Maycomb children wary of their new teacher.

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