To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 9 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Who first publicly taunts Scout about Atticus defending a Black man?

   • Correct answer: Cecil Jacobs
   • Bob Ewell
   • Walter Cunningham
   • Francis

   Cecil Jacobs announces in the schoolyard that Scout Finch’s daddy defends Black people, which is the first time Scout confronts public hostility over the Robinson case.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How does Scout respond when she faces Cecil Jacobs after her talk with Atticus?

   • She cries and runs home to Atticus
   • She punches him in the schoolyard
   • She reports him to her teacher
   • Correct answer: She drops her fists and walks away

   Scout manages to walk away from Cecil Jacobs without fighting, honoring Atticus’s request that she use her head instead of her fists. It is the first time she has ever backed down from a fight.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Whose word does Atticus tell Uncle Jack the jury will weigh against Tom Robinson’s?

   • The Cunninghams
   • The Radleys
   • Correct answer: The Ewells
   • The Crawfords

   Atticus tells Uncle Jack the case comes down to a black man’s word against the Ewells’, and that the jury can’t be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against theirs.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does Atticus say he took the Tom Robinson case?

   • He hoped to win votes for his seat in the state legislature
   • Correct answer: He could not face his children or himself if he refused
   • Calpurnia asked him to help a family from her church
   • He believed the case would be easy to win at the summer session

   Atticus tells Scout that if he refused the case, he could not hold his head up in town and could not tell Jem or Scout what to do, because he would have lost his moral authority.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Where does the Finch family celebrate Christmas?

   • At Uncle Jack’s house in Boston
   • Correct answer: At Finch’s Landing
   • At Miss Maudie’s house
   • At Atticus’s house in town

   The family spends Christmas at Finch’s Landing, the old Finch homestead on the river where Aunt Alexandra and Uncle Jimmy live. Francis, who lives in Mobile, is left there by his parents every Christmas.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Who is Francis in relation to Scout?

   • Correct answer: Her cousin (Aunt Alexandra’s grandson)
   • Her neighbor (Miss Rachel’s nephew)
   • Her cousin (Uncle Jack’s only son)
   • Her uncle (Aunt Alexandra’s son Henry)

   Francis is Scout’s cousin—the grandson of Aunt Alexandra, Atticus’s sister.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What slur does Francis use against Atticus?

   • Coward
   • Race traitor
   • Correct answer: Nigger-lover
   • Bleeding heart

   Francis calls Atticus a “nigger-lover,” repeating language he has absorbed from Aunt Alexandra’s dinner-table commentary.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does Scout do to Francis after he insults Atticus?

   • She kicks him under the table
   • She ignores him as Atticus instructed
   • She tells Aunt Alexandra
   • Correct answer: She punches him in the mouth

   Scout punches Francis in the mouth, splitting her knuckle to the bone. Her restraint, which held with Cecil Jacobs, finally breaks when a family member insults her father.

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9. 9

   Question 9. How does Uncle Jack respond after Scout hits Francis?

   • He asks both children to explain what happened
   • Correct answer: He punishes Scout without hearing her side
   • He sides with Scout after learning what Francis said
   • He ignores the incident

   Uncle Jack spanks Scout without asking for her version of events, punishing her based solely on what he saw and what Francis told him.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What criticism does Scout make of Uncle Jack when he comes to her room?

    • That he should have punished Francis too for starting it
    • That he does not visit Maycomb often enough at Christmas
    • That he is too strict with Jem and too soft on Francis
    • Correct answer: That he is not fair because he did not hear her side

    Scout tells Uncle Jack he is not fair: he never gave her a chance to tell her side before he lit into her. She adds that he does not understand children much.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What parenting principle does Atticus teach Uncle Jack?

    • Children should be seen and not heard at the grown-ups’ table
    • Bad language must be punished at once or it becomes a habit
    • Correct answer: Children deserve honest answers and can spot evasion quickly
    • Parents should always present a united front to their children

    Atticus tells Jack that children can spot an evasion faster than adults and that evasion only confuses them. He advocates for directness and honesty when answering children’s questions.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does Atticus reveal he knows at the end of the chapter?

    • Correct answer: That Scout is eavesdropping on his conversation with Jack
    • That Aunt Alexandra disapproves of him
    • That the trial date has been set
    • That Francis started the fight

    Atticus quietly acknowledges that he knows Scout is listening to his private conversation with Jack. He has been speaking for her benefit, using the conversation to prepare her for the difficult trial ahead.

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13. 13

    Question 13. From whom has Francis learned his negative opinions about Atticus defending Tom Robinson?

    • The town newspaper
    • Bob Ewell
    • His schoolteacher
    • Correct answer: Aunt Alexandra (his grandmother)

    Francis parrots Aunt Alexandra’s language almost verbatim, illustrating how racial prejudice is transmitted through family conversations rather than explicit instruction.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What does Atticus mean when he says they were “licked a hundred years before we started”?

    • The case has already been tried once before
    • The Finch family has a history of losing legal cases
    • Correct answer: Deep-seated racial prejudice makes the verdict a foregone conclusion
    • Tom Robinson has a criminal record

    Atticus means that the entrenched racism of the community has predetermined the outcome long before the trial begins, but he insists this is no reason not to try to win.

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15. 15

    Question 15. Why does Scout ask Uncle Jack not to tell Atticus what Francis said?

    • Correct answer: She wants Atticus to think the fight was about something else
    • She is afraid Atticus will punish her more severely
    • She wants to handle the situation herself
    • She is embarrassed about losing the fight

    Atticus once asked Scout not to let anything she heard about him make her mad. She would rather he think she and Francis were fighting about something else.

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