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SHORT ANSWER STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS - The Hobbit
Chapter 11
1. Why did the men of the town leave the travelers at the end of the third day?
2. Identify Ravenhill.
3. What did the scouting party see at the front gate?
4. What were the dwarves looking for on the western side of the mountain?
5. How did the dwarves get the secret door open?
Chapter 12
1. What did Bilbo see at the end of the tunnel?
2. Why did Smaug go into a rage upon awakening?
3. Why did Bilbo go back down the tunnel a second time?
4. How did Bilbo answer when the dragon asked who he was?
5. Which of Smaug’s senses was very keen?
6. What was Smaug’s weakness that Bilbo discovered?
7. Why did Thorin tell Bilbo to leave the thrush alone?
8. Why did the dwarves move their camp to within the tunnel?
9. What did Thorin say was the greatest treasure of the Mountain?
Vocabulary - The Hobbit Chapters 11-12
Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.
Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the words in bold mean.
1. They were come to the Desolation of the Dragon, and they were come at the waning of the year.
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2. . . . though autumn was now crawling towards winter that pleasant time now seemed years ago. They were alone in the perilous waste without hope of further help.
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3. On this western side there were fewer signs of the dragon’s marauding feet, and there was some grass for their ponies.
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4. They beat on it, they thrust and pushed at it, they implored it to move, they spoke fragments of broken spells of opening, and nothing stirred.
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5. When morning came the terror of the dwarves grew less. They realized that dangers of this kind were inevitable in dealing with such a guardian, and that it was no good giving up their quest yet.
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6. Whenever Smaug’s roving eye, seeking for him in the shadows, flashed across him, he trembled, and an unaccountable desire seized hold of him to rush out and reveal himself and tell all the truth to Smaug. In fact he was in grievous danger of coming under the dragon-spell.
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7. And Smaug laughed aloud. He had a wicked and a wily heart, and he knew his guesses
were not far out
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8. Truly there can nowhere be found the equal of Lord Smaug the Impenetrable. What magnificence to possess a waistcoat of fine diamonds!
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9. . . . they all began discussing dragon-slayings historical, dubious, and mythical, and the . . .
devices and stratagems by which they had been accomplished.
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10. —because at first he wanted to try and lure me in again, I suppose, and now perhaps because
he is waiting till after tonight’s hunt
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Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
___ 1. waning A. grabbed
___ 2. perilous B. calculating; plotting
___ 3. marauding C. entice; attract
___ 4. implored D. lessening; going away; ending
___ 5. inevitable E. wandering in search of something to steal
___ 6. seized F. can’t be pierced or entered through
___ 7. wily G. dangerous
___ 8. impenetrable H. ask or beg urgently
___ 9. dubious
___ 10. lure J. doubtful