Quiz: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — Chapter I & Front Matter

Instructions: Answer each question based only on what you have read.

Multiple Choice

**1. Who is the author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?**
A) Tom Sawyer
B) Mark Twain
C) Judge Thatcher
D) G. G., Chief of Ordnance

2. Where and when is the story set, according to the opening scene description?
A) The Mississippi Valley, forty to fifty years ago
B) New York City, one hundred years ago
C) The Ohio Valley, ten years ago
D) England, two hundred years ago

3. How much money did Huck and Tom each receive after finding the robbers' treasure?
A) One thousand dollars
B) Six thousand dollars
C) A dollar a day
D) Ten thousand dollars

4. Who takes Huck in and decides to "sivilize" him?
A) Miss Watson
B) Aunt Polly
C) The Widow Douglas
D) Judge Thatcher

5. Why does Huck initially run away from the widow's house?
A) He wanted to join a band of robbers
B) He found the strict, "sivilized" living too uncomfortable
C) He was afraid of Miss Watson
D) Tom Sawyer told him to leave

6. What condition does Tom Sawyer set for Huck to join his band of robbers?
A) Huck must find more treasure
B) Huck must go back to the widow and be respectable
C) Huck must stop smoking
D) Huck must learn to spell

7. What does Miss Watson teach Huck about that makes him lose interest once he learns a certain fact?
A) Political economy
B) Moses and the Bulrushers
C) The bad place
D) Spelling

8. According to the "Explanatory" note, why does Twain explain the dialects used in the book?
A) So readers don't think the characters are all trying to talk alike and failing
B) So readers can learn to speak like Southerners
C) To apologize for using slang
D) To warn readers the dialects are made up

Short Answer

9. According to the humorous "Notice" at the beginning of the book, what will happen to persons who try to find a motive, a moral, or a plot in the narrative?

10. Describe in your own words how Huck feels about living with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, and give one specific example from the text that shows this.

11. Why does Huck say he doesn't care about Moses once Miss Watson mentions a certain detail about him? What does this reveal about Huck's character or way of thinking?

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Answer Key

1. B) Mark Twain
2. A) The Mississippi Valley, forty to fifty years ago
3. B) Six thousand dollars
4. C) The Widow Douglas
5. B) He found the strict, "sivilized" living too uncomfortable
6. B) Huck must go back to the widow and be respectable
7. B) Moses and the Bulrushers
8. A) So readers don't think the characters are all trying to talk alike and failing

1. Persons seeking a motive will be prosecuted, persons seeking a moral will be banished, and persons seeking a plot will be shot.

1. Answers will vary but should note that Huck finds the widow's house "rough," dismal, regular, and confining—he feels "cramped up" in his new clothes and dislikes having to wait for supper and sit still. Example: he says he "lit out" and got back into his old rags because he couldn't stand it any longer.

1. Huck loses interest once he learns Moses has been dead a long time, saying "I don't take no stock in dead people." This shows Huck is very literal, practical, and uninterested in things that don't have present, useful value to him.