The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

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SHORT ANSWER STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS

Chapters 1-4

1. How did Tom get out of being switched?

2. How did Aunt Polly catch Tom for playing hooky?

3. Why does Tom live with his Aunt Polly?

4. What did Tom do to the new boy?

5. What was Tom's Saturday job for punishment? How did he escape doing it? What did he do

     instead?

6. What was Tom's reward for whitewashing the fence?

7. Why didn't Aunt Polly belt Sid for breaking the sugar bowl?

8. What did a pupil get when he had ten yellow tickets?

9. How did Tom get his ten yellow tickets?

10. How was Tom's deceitfulness revealed?

Chapters 1 - 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 underlined words mean on the lines provided.

1. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said . . . .

2. The new boy took two broad coppers out of his pocket and held them out with derision.

3. Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind.

4. Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart.

5….in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to

attain.

6. These two great commanders did not condescend to fight in person .... but . . . . conducted the field

operations by orders delivered through aides-de-camp.

7. Tom contrived to scarify the cupboard with it, and was arranging to begin . . . when he was called off

to dress for Sunday school.

8. The middle-aged man turned out to be a prodigious personage--no less than the county judge—

Vocabulary - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Chapters 1-4 Continued

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

___ 1. perplexed                      A. eagerness

___ 2. derision                         B. lower oneself to the position of inferiors

___ 3. consent                         C. schemed

___ 4. alacrity                          D. puzzled, uncertain

___ 5. covet                             E. impressively great

___ 6. condescend                   F. ridicule

___ 7. contrived                       G. agree to something

___ 8. prodigious                     H. want