77 pages • 2 hours read
Parable of the Sower
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Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Chapters 1-3
Reading Check
1. In which year does the novel begin?
2. What happened to Lauren’s dad’s church?
3. Where does Lauren live, and what is the closest major city?
4. Why do Lauren and her family leave their neighborhood in Chapter 2?
5. What is Lauren’s favorite book of the Bible?
6. Which utility cost continually rises?
7. What is one way Lauren and her siblings protect themselves from fights?
8. Who is Alicia Catalina Godinez Leal?
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following best summarizes Lauren’s thoughts on organized religion?
A) She believes in the doctrine of her father’s parish.
B) She is a staunch atheist and denier of organized religion.
C) She is a cult leader of a small grassroots faith.
D) She has a personal faith different from her father’s God.
2. Which of the following best describes Lauren’s reaction to Mrs. Sims’ death?
A) filled with mourning and sorrow
B) feels personally responsible for her death
C) questions Mrs. Sims’ faith as well as God all together
D) relieved a neighborhood terror is finally gone
3. Which of the following words best describes Lauren’s philosophy of God’s nature?
A) malleable
B) static
C) finite
D) elusive
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Describe Lauren’s recurring dream and who is in it.
2. What is Lauren’s syndrome and how does her father react to it?
3. What service does the Yannis family provide to the neighborhood and what happens to this service in Chapter 3?
4. Discuss Lauren’s dad’s relationship with politics. Which candidate does he like for the 2024 presidential election? How does Lauren feel about his choice? How does he decide to vote in the end?
Chapters 4-6
Reading Check
1. Who are Wardell Parrish and Rosalee Payne?
2. Why do Lauren and her companions go into the canyons?
3. When was the last time Lauren saw rain?
4. What happens to Amy Dunn in Chapter 5?
5.What is Lauren’s father’s advice about her opinions of the world?
6. What does Lauren’s family use to make bread?
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following best describes Lauren’s dad’s relationships with guns?
A) As a religious leader in the community, he is a staunch pacifist and believes in gun control.
B) As a father, he believes it is important for families, including children, to learn the basics of gun usage for the purposes of protection.
C) As a husband, he despises guns and ammunition since it is how his first wife died.
D) As a man in a polygamous relationship, he advocates for gun usage for men to keep their women under control.
2. Which of the following best summarizes the conversation between Jo and Lauren in Chapter 5?
A) Jo is eager to learn about survival skills while Lauren is hesitant.
B) Jo is concerned about the neighborhood deaths while Lauren is apathetic.
C) Lauren encourages Jo to prepare while Jo thinks they are too young to make a change.
D) Lauren believes they should leave immediately while Jo is worried about leaving her parents behind.
3. Which of the following best summarizes how Lauren’s dad responds to Lauren’s conversation with Jo?
A) raging scorn
B) exuberant support
C) pervasive shame
D) urge for caution
4. Which of the following best summarizes the reason Lauren’s dad responds to Cory’s argument with the Bible verse Nehemiah 4:14?
A) to show her he has a better command of the Bible than she does
B) to remind her of her place in the household
C) to provide a reason for killing an intruder
D) to exemplify the importance of remaining peaceful during unlawful times
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Who is Amy Dunn? Describe her familial circumstances and how Lauren supports her.
2. Describe Richard Moss’s new religion. How does Lauren compare his beliefs with the way many men treat women?
3. Describe Lauren’s encounter with the dog in Chapter 4. How does Lauren feel about her action?
Chapters 7-9
Reading Check
1. What does Lauren want to gather in a single notebook?
2. What does Lauren want to add to her survival pack that she does not have?
3. How are people from California viewed by those from Oregon, Washington, and Canada?
4. Fill in the missing words from Lauren’s birthday gift: The Destiny of Earthseed Is to take _________.
5. What does Keith receive for his birthday?
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following best summarizes Lauren’s feelings on reproducing?
A) confusion given the current state of the world
B) elation since babies are an inherent joy
C) despair since she will feel the sorrow of all babies born
D) disgust since she loathes the feeling of another human’s touch
2. Which of the following best describes how Lauren feels about Keith’s actions in Chapter 9?
A) respect and awe
B) anger and hatred
C) love and admiration
D) fear and repentance
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is Earthseed? How does Lauren describe this term?
2. Describe the event involving Keith in Chapter 8. Why does Keith do this? What are the major concerns surrounding this incident?
Chapters 10-13
Reading Check
1. Why did her dad hit Lauren when she was 12?
2. What has increased since Keith’s death?
3. What is KSF?
4. What does Lauren decide to do when she is 18?
5. What does the community congratulate Lauren on in the wake of her dad’s disappearance?
6. Whose house burns in Chapter 13?
7. How will the responsibilities be divided after Lauren’s dad’s disappearance?
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following best summarizes Lauren’s concerns with KSF?
A) They are only hiring men, which Lauren believes is sexist.
B) They are choosing to make private lands public, which puts extra strain on government resources.
C) They are offering workers extremely low wages in exchange for security, which would cause workers to be in debt to the company.
D) They are interested in supporting the candidate opposing President Donner in the next election to secure more potential properties.
2. Which of the following words best encompasses the state of Lauren’s neighborhood in Chapter 11?
A) prepared
B) unravelling
C) united
D) uninhabitable
3. Which of the following words best summarizes Lauren’s attitude in the days after her dad’s disappearance?
A) defeated
B) persistent
C) mournful
D) hollow
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Describe Keith’s new living arrangements in Chapter 10. Why is he accepted by his new community? How does Lauren feel about this information?
2. Who are the “paints?” What do they do?
3. Describe the events surrounding Keith’s death in Chapter 10. How does his death affect the family?
4. Chapters 10 through 13 are united in the theme of loss. Describe some of the loss that occurs in these chapters and how Lauren handles the change.
Chapters 14-16
Reading Check
1. According to Cory, what has made the streets cleaner?
2. What does Lauren take from under the lemon tree?
3. Who does Lauren sit with after returning to her neighborhood?
4. Who is allowed to own a gun in Olivar?
5. Where does Lauren decide to go?
6. What is Hanning Joss?
7. How are Lauren and her companions traveling?
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following best describes Lauren’s feelings on theft?
A) Although she has never stolen before, she understands it is vital for surviving in her present circumstances.
B) She does not support thievery of any kind.
C) She has stolen frequently to supplement her food.
D) After developing Earthseed, she avoids any action directly contradicted by the Old Testament.
2. Which of the following words best describes how Lauren feels about her new companions?
A) trusting
B) defiled
C) cautious
D) disgusted
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What happens to Lauren’s neighborhood in Chapter 14? How is Lauren’s situation different from Cory and her brothers’ when this happens?
2. Chapters 14 to 16 cover the obstacles Lauren and her companions face outside their neighborhood. Discuss their new lives together as well as some of the things they do and learn on their journey.
Chapters 17-19
Reading Check
1. Which sound does Lauren believe will follow them as they continue their journey?
2. What discovery does Lauren make at the beach?
3. What secret is revealed to Travis and Natividad?
4. In which city does Lauren’s group stop in Chapter 18?
5. What is the destiny of Earthseed?
6. According to Lauren, what is the weakness that allows scavengers to infiltrate communities?
7. What does Bankole convince the group to buy?
Multiple Choice
1. Which small item do Lauren and her companions continue to find on corpses?
A) purple buttons
B) purple matches
C) purple pills
D) purple candies
2. Which of the following best describes Lauren’s attitude toward Allie and Jill as newcomers to Earthseed?
A) hesitant
B) suspicious
C) overjoyed
D) welcoming
3. Which natural hazard occurs in the beginning of Chapter 19?
A) earthquake
B) wildfire
C) tornado
D) flood
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Compare and contrast the different reactions of each of Lauren’s companions to her admission that she is a “sharer.” How does Lauren feel about these reactions?
2. Who are Travis, Natividad, and Dominic? What is Lauren’s relationship to them?
3. Who is Taylor Franklin Bankole? Which attribute bonds him and Lauren immediately?
Chapters 20-22
Reading Check
1. What does Lauren learn from the earring radio?
2. Who is Justin Rohr?
3. What is Bankole’s profession?
4. Which city does the group pass through at the beginning of Chapter 22?
5. What does Bankole consider Earthseed to be in relation to Lauren?
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following best describes Lauren’s role among her companions?
A) mistrusted fanatic
B) natural leader
C) warm maternal figure
D) lovestruck kid
2. How does Lauren feel about Northern California?
A) relieved the people are friendly and there are plenty of jobs
B) saddened the fires are even worse in Sacramento
C) perplexed that with more wealth there is still desperation and cannibalism
D) disgusted by the number of wild cats killing babies
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. In Chapter 21, Lauren and Bankole discuss Earthseed. What are some of Bankole’s reservations with the belief system? What is Lauren’s response?
2. How do Bankole and Lauren compromise regarding their future?
Chapters 23-25
Reading Check
1. Who are Emery and Tori Solis?
2. Which member of the group is lost in Chapter 24?
3. What interesting trait does Lauren learn Emery, Tori, and Mora have?
4. What name is given to Bankole’s property?
Multiple Choice
1. Which trait does Lauren believe to be a sign of previous slavery?
A) passive aggression
B) tentativeness
C) persistent lying
D) determination
2. Which of the following best summarizes how Lauren feels after the violent encounter in Chapter 24?
A) empowered because she is able to stop the fighting with her verses
B) fearful because she is worried she killed someone
C) pained because she felt the deaths of several attackers personally
D) angry because her companions did not support her violent attack
3. “It teased like a living, malevolent thing, intent on causing pain and terror. It drove us before it like dogs chasing a rabbit. Yet it didn’t eat us. It could have, but it didn’t.” Which literary devices are used in this quote about the fire?
A) metaphor, personification
B) allusion, metaphor
C) simile, metaphor
D) simile, personification
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Summarize the story Emery shares with Lauren. How does this relate to Lauren’s concerns about working for companies?
2. What do Lauren and her companions discover on Bankole’s property? What decision does the group come to?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Chapters 1-3
Reading Check
1. 2024 (Chapter 1)
2. It was burned down. (Chapter 2)
3. Robledo, near Los Angeles (Chapter 2)
4. to go to a baptism at a nearby church (Chapter 2)
5. Job (Chapter 2)
6. water (Chapter 3)
7. wearing dirty clothes outside the walls (Chapter 3)
8. an astronaut who dies on the latest mission to Mars (Chapter 3)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. There are two parts to her recurring dream. In the first part, she is teaching herself how to fly despite the obstacles of fire around her. In the second part, she is speaking with her stepmother about the stars in the sky; while Lauren prefers to see the stars, her stepmother would prefer to see the city lights again. (Chapter 1)
2. Lauren has hyperempathy syndrome, which means she shares the feelings of others around her, including bleeding when another person bleeds. Her father believes Lauren can work to overcome the disease, and he is ashamed that she has it because the syndrome is a result of her mother (his first wife) abusing drugs while she was pregnant with Lauren. (Chapter 2)
3. The Yannis family has a “Window Wall television” they allow people in the neighborhood to watch for a small admission fee. In Chapter 3, the television finally goes silent, leaving the neighborhood to depend on only a few older pieces of technology for news from the outside world. (Chapter 3)
4. Although most people do not vote, Lauren says her dad will vote in this election because he agrees with candidate Donner’s ideas to close the space program. She disagrees with him on this because she thinks space exploration, like on Mars, is a good opportunity for the future. In the end, her father decides not to vote. (Chapter 3)
Chapters 4-6
Reading Check
1. Mrs. Sims relatives, who will move into her house (Chapter 4)
2. for target practice (Chapter 4)
3. six years ago (Chapter 5)
4. killed by gunfire (Chapter 5)
5. to keep her opinions to herself (Chapter 6)
6. acorns (Chapter 6)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Amy is Lauren’s three-year-old neighbor, who almost burns down her family’s house. She is the result of familial rape, and most of the family ignores her. Lauren decides to teach Amy and let her into the school where Lauren works with her stepmother. (Chapter 4)
2. Richard Moss combines Old Testament values with West African practices into a religion that emphasizes the importance of patriarchy and polygamy. Lauren compares these ideas to the powerful men who exploit their wealth and engage in polygamous relationships with women who are usually underprivileged. (Chapter 4)
3. During target practice, Lauren and her companions encounter several wild dogs. Her dad shoots and injures one, but he does not kill it. Lauren makes the decision to end the dog’s life to end its suffering. Although she feels its pain, she notes she did not die when she killed it. (Chapter 4)
Chapters 7-9
Reading Check
1. her verses from her journals about God (Chapter 7)
2. a gun (Chapter 7)
3. “trash” (Chapter 7)
4. root among the stars (Chapter 7)
5. a BB gun (Chapter 9)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. “Earthseed” is the name Lauren gives her “God is change” belief system. Lauren describes this as a “discovery rather than invention” and notes that anyone can become a part of Earthseed. (Chapter 7)
2. Keith takes one of the keys for the gate and leaves the neighborhood. He returns bloody and crying and admits the key was stolen from him. Keith wanted to prove his manliness to his father. This event leads to several concerns: first, where the family will find the money for new clothes and shoes for Keith; and secondly, how they will be able to change the lock to the neighborhood before there are intruders. (Chapter 8)
Chapters 10-13
Reading Check
1. because he caught her with a boy (Chapter 10)
2. break-ins and robberies (Chapter 11)
3. an acronym for Kagimoto, Stamm, Frampton, and Company, which is a company that bought the struggling town of Olivar (Chapter 11)
4. to leave her neighborhood (Chapter 11)
5. her preaching abilities (Chapter 12)
6. the Payne-Parrish house (Chapter 13)
7. Cory will take Lauren’s dad’s teaching responsibilities, and Lauren will take on Cory’s responsibilities (Chapter 13)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Keith visits Lauren and tells her he is living with friends in a nice area, which she assumes to mean in a squat. He says he has been accepted because, unlike his new friends, he knows how to read and write and can therefore read the instruction manuals for the technological equipment they own. Lauren does not believe this is the full story. (Chapter 10)
2. They are a group of people living on the outside, who shave off their hair and paint their skin a color. They set people on fire, usually rich ones, and they take the drug that makes them want to set things on fire and watch them burn. (Chapter 10)
3. He was tortured but identifiable and his body is found in a place that makes it look like the killer wanted the body to be found.. Cory blames Lauren for his death, but although she did not get along with Keith, Lauren did not want him dead. (Chapter 10)
4. Keith is lost when he is confirmed dead. Both Lauren’s dad and the neighbor Tracy are lost in that they are presumed dead, though their bodies are never found. And finally, families, such as the Garfields, are preparing to move to Olivar, which will be another loss in the community and one that is similar to death since the environment is not conducive for them to return. Lauren considers her neighborhood to be disintegrating with these various forms of loss. (Chapters 10-13)
Chapters 14-16
Reading Check
1. poverty (Chapter 14)
2. money (Chapter 14)
3. Zahra Moss and Harry Baiter (Chapter 14)
4. only the security forces (Chapter 15)
5. north (Chapter 15)
6. “the biggest secure store complex in Robledo” (Chapter 15)
7. walking on the freeways (Chapter 15)
Multiple Choice
1. A (Chapter 15)
2. C (Chapter 15)
Short-Answer Response
1. Lauren’s neighborhood is burned by the paints. She decides to return to her house to salvage any belongings. Unlike her family, she had her emergency pack and outside clothes while her family escaped in their pajamas (Chapter 14).
2. Lauren, Harry, and Zahra choose to remain together as they head up north. First, they buy supplies as a team, and then they take the freeways to walk north and camp in the evenings. Lauren learns more practical skills from the two companions, especially Zahra, who lived on the streets before. The major conclusion they come to as a group is that they cannot trust other people (Chapters 14-16).
Chapters 17-19
Reading Check
1. the “shuffling hordes of people on the move” (Chapter 17)
2. how to make potable water (Chapter 17)
3. that Lauren is really a girl (Chapter 17)
4. Santa Barbara (Chapter 18)
5. “to take root among the stars” (Chapter 18)
6. a fire (Chapter 19)
7. a rifle (Chapter 19)
Short-Answer Response
1. While Zahra is understanding of Lauren’s condition due to her own mother’s drug addiction, Harry is more curious, especially as her condition relates to how it affects her killing other people. He is also curious about her writings. Lauren feels that Harry does not like the “new” her while Zahra does not seem to mind. (Chapters 16- 17)
2. They are a mixed-race family Lauren and her companions befriend. Lauren saves them twice: first from a thief at the water station and then from a dog trying to attack their baby. Eventually the family comes to sit with Lauren and her companions. (Chapter 17)
3. He is a newcomer to the group. He’s an older man who helps Lauren and her companions rescue Allie and Jill from the house. He and Lauren bond over their Yoruba last names. (Chapter 19)
Chapters 20-22
Reading Check
1. the group should avoid walking through the Bay area (Chapter 20)
2. a child the group takes in after his mother dies (Chapter 20)
3. a doctor (Chapter 21)
4. Sacramento (Chapter 22)
5. his “rival” (Chapter 22)
Multiple Choice
1. B (Chapter 20)
2. C (Chapter 22)
Short-Answer Response
1. Bankole is concerned that Earthseed is too straightforward and sounds too simple, which will allow other people to add their own complexities and interpretations to the system that will change the religion. Lauren emphasizes her continued presence and involvement in the religion. (Chapter 21)
2. Bankole asks Lauren to marry him and live with him and his sister’s family on his property near Mendocino. She reiterates to him the importance of Earthseed, and he agrees to let her run her community on the property. (Chapter 22)
Chapters 23-25
Reading Check
1. a mother and daughter Lauren allows to join the group (Chapter 23)
2. Jill (Chapter 24)
3. They are also sharers. (Chapter 24)
4. Acorn (Chapter 25)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Tori shares the story of how she and her daughter escaped after her husband died and her sons were taken from her. They were working for a company where they were both debt slaves. (Chapter 23)
2. Bankole’s property has been burnt down, and his family is most likely dead. The group discusses the pros and cons of remaining there, and after discussing the possibilities of leaving and finding work, potentially in factories near Canada that exploit workers through poor labor conditions, they decide to stay and build a community. (Chapter 25)
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