The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Name:___________________________________________________________ Date: ______________
SHORT ANSWER STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
Chapters 13-16
1. Who joined Tom in his "life of crime"?
2. Why was Huck suddenly disappointed about the state of his clothes?
3. Why couldn't Tom and Joe get to sleep very easily?
4. How do the townspeople find drowned bodies in the river?
5. Why did the boys suddenly feel like heroes?
6. Where did Tom go that night?
7. What were Mrs. Harper and Aunt Polly saying about their boys?
8. What did Huck teach Tom and Joe to do? What happened to them?
Vocabulary - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Chapters 13 - 16
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.
25. . . . wishing "she" could see him now, abroad on the wild sea, facing peril and death with dauntless
heart, going to his doom with a grim smile on his lips.
26. The other pirates envied him this majestic vice, and secretly resolved to acquire it shortly.
27. They tried to argue it away by reminding conscience that they had purloined sweetmeats and apples
scores of times, but conscience was not to be appeased by such thin plausibilities . . . .
28. Then with a mutual impulse the two bereaved women flung themselves into each other's arms and
had a good, consoling cry, and then parted.
29. They were a vain and boastful company of heroes when the tale was done.
30. . . . splashed water in each other's faces with their palms, gradually approaching each other, with
averted faces to avoid the strangling sprays . . . .
31. He had made a plausible excuse; but his real reason had been the fear that not even the secret
would keep them with him any very great length of time. . . .
32. The storm culminated in one catchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island to pieces, burn it
up, drown it to the treetops, blow it away, and deafen every creature in it, all at one and the same
moment.. . . They boys went back to camp, a good deal awed . . . .
Part II: Determining the Meaning - Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
___ 25. dauntless A. possessed in common
___ 26. vice B. excessively proud
___ 27. appeased C. believable
___ 28. mutual D. fearless
___ 29. vain E. bad habit
___ 30. averted F. amazed with mixed emotions of reverence, respect and dread
___ 31. plausible G. calmed; satisfied; pacified
___ 32. awed H. turned away