Out of the Dust

Name: ___________________________________________________ Date: ______________________

SPRING 1934

Section 4: Tested by Dust through On the Road with Arley

1. For what reason does Billie Jo think that she and the other students should get bonus points on their six-

    weeks achievement test?

2. What money is the Kelby family going to get in time for the baby’s coming?

3. What bad news does the county agent bring in Beat Wheat?

4. Who is Joe De La Flor?

5. What is the major dispute between Billie Jo’s mother and father in Give Up on Wheat?

6. What opera does Billie Jo realize she has never heard of in What I Don’t Know?

7. Why are the two apple trees in Billie Jo’s yard still alive?

8. What does Billie Jo’s father say he remembers about World War I in France?

9. What will happen to the apples on the trees in a couple of months?

10. What was wrong with the rain that came in Dust and Rain?

11. How much wheat does Billie Jo think her father will get harvested per acre of land?

12. How does Arley pay Billie Jo for her piano playing?

Section 4 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. One quarter of the wheat is lost; blown away or withered up.

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2. I wince at the sight of his rib-thin cattle.

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3. To eat them now, so tart, would turn my mouth inside out, would make my stomach groan.

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4. On Sunday, winds came, bringing a red dust like prairie fire, hot and peppery, searing the inside of my

    nose, the whites of my eyes.

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5. The combines gave started moving across the fields…

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Part II: Determining the Meaning: Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

___16. withered                       A. scorching or burning the surface of

___17. wince                           B. harvesting machines

___18. tart                               C. dried up; shriveled

___19. searing                         D. to shrink or start involuntarily, as in pain or distress

___20. combines                      E. having a sharp pungent taste; sour