Out of the Dust

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What best describes the farm Billie Jo lives on?

A) Lush, with a small creek and strawberry plants, but eventually destroyed by dust

B) Half covered in thriving corn and half dusty, trying to recover with patches of grass

C) Full of dust and struggling crops but starting to recover toward the end of the novel

D) Small and full of cattle, with scattered dust and many clumps of trees and wildflowers

2. Which of the following most accurately summarizes Billie Jo’s feelings after her mother’s death?

A) Self-guilt, anger directed at her father, grief, feeling lost, and loneliness

B) Sadness, relief her mom has stopped suffering, and irritation at her father

C) Intense fury at her father with little room for any other emotions

D) Numbness only disturbed by gratitude that her baby brother survived

3. Which of the following is a cause of Billie Jo’s hands getting injured?

A) Playing piano at night

B) A horrible dust storm

C) A mistake about a bucket

D) Guests asking for shelter

4. How does Mad Dog become a symbol of hope for his community?

A) He gets wheat to grow when others cannot.

B) He graduates from college after years of hard work.

C) He meets President Roosevelt at the White House.

D) He travels to Amarillo and sings on the radio.

5. Why does Billie Jo leave on the boxcar?

A) She wants to find her mother before she dies.

B) She is trying to find Mad Dog.

C) She hates her father and his nagging.

D) She wants to escape the dust.

6. Which best explains the reason Billie Jo returns home after briefly running away?

A) She accomplished her goal and wanted to see the farm again.

B) She realized she needed to heal within herself and missed her father.

C) She got the chance to play piano and returned to follow her dream.

D) She heard her father was ill and returned to help him through the recovery.

7. Which of the following best exemplifies the theme of The Impact of Ignorance on Environment and Society?

A) Daddy digging the pond

B) Planting wheat every year

C) President Roosevelt’s speeches

D) Competitions at the Palace

8. What helps Billie Jo heal as she turns 15?

A) Playing piano again

B) Winning a prize at the Palace

C) Staying with Aunt Ellis

D) Making her mother’s cranberry sauce

9. What does the dust symbolize?

A) Travel and curiosity

B) Humankind’s wonder

C) Waiting and hope

D) Nature’s power

10. What do the dust and the rain have in common?

A) They both have the power to destroy.

B) They both lead to Billie Jo’s mom’s death.

C) They both start out positive but turn negative.

D) They both help the town’s crops.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What does the pond symbolize? How is Billie Jo’s father’s connection to the pond significant?

2. How do Billie Jo’s shifting feelings toward Mad Dog reveal different sides to her?