The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Name:___________________________________________________________ Date: ______________
SHORT ANSWER STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
Chapters 23-28
1. Who did Muff Potter's attorney call to the stand?
2. What did Tom tell the court?
3. How did the townspeople react to Tom's telling on Injun Joe?
4. Why were Tom's nights scary?
5. Who did Tom invite to go treasure hunting?
6. Why did Tom and Huck go back to the dead limb tree at
7. Why did the boys stop treasure hunting?
8. Who was the Spaniard?
9. Why were the boys distressed that they had left the spade and pick downstairs?
10. Why did Tom think that maybe the adventure was a dream?
11. What plan did Tom and Huck make for finding the real treasure?
12. How did Tom get in to the Number Two?
13. What scared Tom when he got in to the Number Two?
Vocabulary - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Chapters 23 - 28
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.
40. His gratitude for their gifts had always smote their consciences before--it cut deeper than ever this
time.
41. Tom kept his ears open when idlers sauntered out of the courtroom, but invariably heard distressing
news--the toils were closing more and more relentlessly around poor Potter.
42. The boys were subdued by these solemnities and talked little.
43. . . . the intolerable distress of the situation woke the stricken resolution of the lads--they were about
to spring for the closet, when there was a crash . . . .
44. But the incidents of his adventure grew sensibly sharper and clearer under the attrition of thinking
them over . . .
Part II: Determining the Meaning: Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
___ 40. smote A. determination
___ 41. invariably B. a gradual rubbing away or wearing down
___ 42. subdued C. always; without change
___ 43. resolution D. inflicted a heavy blow upon
___ 44. attrition E. conquered and brought under control