Rocket Boys/October Sky 7th grade Virginia private boys' school English teacher's test I
have permission to share, very hard (and meant to confuse those who rented the movie
instead of reading the book as assigned) The answer sheet is up to you, good luck!!!
October Sky by Homer Hickam, Jr.
Book Test
February 16, 2000
I. MATCHING
Match each character with the appropriate identifying description.
1._____ Mr. Van Dyke
2._____ Elsie
3._____ Quentin
4._____ Miss Riley
5._____ Dorothy
6._____ Buck
7._____ Mr. Fuller
8._____ William Laird
9._____ Homer Hickam. Sr.
10.____ Pooky
11.____ Mr. Dubonnet
12.____ Mr. Hartsfield
13.____ Geneva Eggers
14.____ Dr. Von Braun
15.____ Ike
16.____ Valentine
17.____ Jim
18.____ The Great Six
19.____ Tex
20.____ Sherman
a. she liked to flirt with the writer
b. leader of the miners' union
c. Orville at the National Science Fair
d. the calculus teacher
e. the writer's father
f. smartest boy in the group
g. the writer's mother
h. died from complications from his childhood polio
i. died at age 32
j. smartest person in the writer's class
k. was kicked off the bus with the writer
l. the general superintendent of the mine
m. temporary superintendent of the mine
n. The Captain
o. teachers who supported the rocket boys
p. the writer's brother
q. the scientist who inspired the writer
r. machine shop worker punished by the writer's father
s. resented the writer's father for his own father's death
t. baby saved by the writer's father
II. MULTIPLE CHOICE Please circle the best answer
1. The writer grew up in
a) Welch
b) War
c) Turkey Knob
d) Coalwood
2. The writer's grandfather lost his
a) eye
b) legs
c) arms
d) none of the above
3. The shaft used for lifting, sorting, and dumping coal was called
a) the virch
b) the crank
c) the tuggle
d) the tipple
4. The writer's high school footbal team was
a) undefeated
b) played too many teams in Virginia
c) did not get to play for the state championship
d) All of the above
5. The name of the company the father worked for was
a) The Olga Coal Company
b) The Coalwood Mine company
c) The Hartsfield Coal Company
d) none of the above
6. The Russians sent Sputnik into space in
a) December 1941
b) August 1948
c) May 1953
d) October 1957
7. The writer played the following instrument in the school band:
a) drums
b) trombone
c) trumpet
d) none of the above
8. The fuel for the writer's first rocket was from
a) cherry bombs
b) M-80's
c) firecrakers
d) none of the above
9. The writer's first rocket ripped out his mother's
a) privacy fence
b) picket fence
c) rose-garden fence
d) none of the above
10. What was the mother's one rule:
a) don't blow yourself up
b) don't quit building rockets
c) don't stay in Coalwood
d) all of the above
11.The writer's father had a spot on his lung the size of
a) an apple
b) a quarter
c) a fist
d) none of the above
12. Quentin told the writer he needed a fuel composed of
a) potassium nitrate, sulfur, and zinc
b) potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sugar
c) potassium nitrate, sugar, and charcoal
d) potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal
13. They named their rockets
a) Aulks
b) Klizes
c) Vanguards
d) Auks
14. The writer formed a club to launch rockets called
a) the CWRC
b) the BMAC
c) the ABMA
d) the BCMA
15. In their designs, the rocket boys
a) changed one thing at a time
b) changed two things at a time
c) changed several things at once
d) All of the above
16. In order to form a nozzle, Mr. Bykovski
a) welded a nut to the bottom of the rocket
b) soldered a nut to the bottom of the rocket
c) soldered a washer to the bottom of the rocket
d) welded a washer to the bottom of the rocket
17. A rocket landed dangerously close to the mining company, and the writer's father
a) was mad at the boy for being a thief of company property
b) was mad at the boy for almost killing innocent people.
c) was delighted that his son was showing interest in science.
d) was delighted that his son confessed to his crime.
18. Cape Coalwood was founded
a) after the boys almost killed Mr. Turner
b) after the minister told the fathers to help their sons
c) after the owner of the mine wanted Coalwood to get a NASA contract
d) all of the above
19. Items were secured for Cape Coalwood
a) by trading goods for supplies and services
b) by forging the father's signature on requisitions
c) by going to Junior at the Big Store
d) none of the above
20. Jake Mosby
a) had a telescope
b) got the boys some press
c) was an engineer
d) All of the above
21. Who had worked with explosives before and told the writer the powder needed to be
bone dry
a) Mr. Dubonnet
b) Mr. Bykovski
c) Mr. Ferro
d) Mr. Caton
22. What did Jake tell the boys they needed to figure out distance and altitude
a) calculus
b) a refractor
c) algebra
d) trigonometry
23. Miss Riley intoduced the boys to rapid oxidation by combining
a) potassium chlorate and sugar
b) potassium chlorate and sulfur
c) potassium chlorate and zinc
d) potassium chlorate and salt
24. The melting of elements from question #23 became a fuel called:
a) Rock Candy
b) Zincoshine
c) Saltpeter
d) none of the above
25. The writer went in to the mine because
a) his Dad wanted to show him what a real engineer does
b) his Dad was hurt and the family needed him to work and make money
c) his mother wanted him to see what it was like
d) the brother needed to stay in school and the family needed one of the boys in the mine
26. The rockets needed a better casing made of
a) wd40
b) Aluminum 501
c) SAR 1020 bar stock
d) SEA 1020 bar stock
27. What book did the writer notice in the Bykovski's house
a) Of Mice and Men
b)The Fountainhead
c) All Quiet on the Western Front
d) none of the above
28.The title of the book Miss Riley gave the writer was
a) Properties of Guided Rocket Design
b) Principles of Guided Rocket Design
c) Properties of Guided Missile Design
d) Principles of Guided Missile Design
29. The writer gets to school on the snow day by
a) snowshoes
b) a sled
c) skis
d) none of the above
30. How many were allowed to take calculus ?
a) five
b) six
c) seven
d) none of the above
31. Who surprised everyone by signing up for the calculus class?
a) Dorothy
b) Jim
c) Valentine
d) All of the above
32. How did the boys prove they did not set the fire on top of Davy Mountain?
a) The fins were too sophisticated for their design
b) The writer proved, through trigonometry, that the distance was impossible to cover
c) Quentin and the writer marched off the distance using a premeasured string
d) All of the above
33. The last fuel that they began using contained
a) zinc
b) alchohol
c) sulfur
d) all of the above
34. The writer's father helped the writer with his calculus by explaining the meaning of
a) the foil method
b) the quadratic equation
c) the sign for delta
d) Faverman's axiom
35. The machinist could have made a mistake by
a) changing too many things at once
b) reducing the fins
c) adding weight
d) making the rockets too tall
36. What was the name of the kid's hangout in the basement of the Owl's Nest?
a) The Owl's Roost
b) Porky's
c) The Bullpen
d) The Dugout
37. Where did the writer and a girl have a romantic evening?
a) Cape Coalwood
b) Jim's car
c) Geneva Eggers house
d) Buck's car
38. Who died in a mining accident that made the writer quit building rockets?
a) Mr. Dubonnet
b) his father
c) Mr. Mosby
d) Mr. Bykovski
39. Who convinced him to start building rockets again?
a) Mrs. Dubonnet
b) his mother
c) Miss Riley
d) Mrs. Bykovski
40. O'Dell had a plan to make money by
a) digging up train tracks and selling the scrap
b) digging up train tracks and selling the pipe underneath
c) digging up train tracks and selling the rails
d) none of the above
41. What was the company doing to the houses?
a) digging them up and selling the scrap
b) selling them
c) demolishing them
d) none of the above
42.How many houses could the writer's mother buy with the money she had saved ?
a) zero
b) one
c) two
d) three
43. What Democratic Presidential candidate did the writer meet?
a) Humphrey
b) Nixon
c) Stevenson
d) Kennedy
44. What color suit did the writer first buy?
a) blue
b) black
c) yellow
d) none of the above
45.What did the father have to do in order to help his son ?
a) give in to the strike
b) sign on the contract so the company word was "his" word.
c) forget moving to the beach
d) all of the above
46. The writer won this at the National Science Fair
a) a scholarship to college
b) a chance to shake Von Braun's hand
c) $10,000 cash
d) none of the above
47. The last rocket fired by the group went about
a) almost 50 miles up
b) almost 6 miles up
c) almost 6 miles beyond the line considered space (36 miles)
d) none of the above
48. The last rocket was launched by the writer's
a) mother
b) father
c) teacher - Miss Riley
d) girlfriend - Melba June Munroe
49. Miss Riley died from
a) Heart Disease
b) Parkinson's Disease
c) Hodgkin's Disease
d) none of the above
50. One item the writer had carried into space was
a) a piece of the nose cone that the father had saved
b) a piece of the nozzle that the father had saved
c) a piece of coal from Coalwood
d) the book given to him by Miss Riley
III. TRUE - FALSE
1. __________ The writer went to West Virginia Tech.
2. __________ His mother made her fortune by investing in stocks.
3. __________ Quentin used a refractor to calculate how far the rockets went.
4. __________ Billy was brought into the group because he was fast and he had money.
5. __________ Tag made Buck repair the blockhouse.
6. __________ The writer's brother played quarterback on the football team.
7. __________ The writer married Valentine years later.
8. __________ Jake drove a Corvair.
9. __________ The writer's father never moved to Myrtle Beach.
10. _________ Big Creek High School was in War, West Virginia.
11. _________ Dorothy kissed the writer 17 times in the book.
12. _________ Pooky killed the writer's pet cat.
13. _________ Mr. Fuller placed a "No Trespassing" sign at Cape Canaveral.
14. _________ Junior helped the writer get the supplies he needed from the Big Store.
15. _________ Geneva Eggers had eight brothers.
16. _________ The writer did, at some time in the book, work in the mine.
17. _________ Quentin went to M.I.T.
18. _________ O'Dell made money by selling genseng.
19. _________ The boys were almost run over by a train while digging up the track.
20. _________ The writer kept Ike's tag as good luck.
21. _________ The mother liked to paint picture, especially on the wall in the kitchen.
22. _________ The writer's father had to wear a glass eye.
23. _________ Basil wrote the articles that made the boys popular.
24. _________ The mine in Coalwood is still working today.
25. _________ Quentin liked to used the word "Proficient" to declare his approval.
26. _________ The book was orginally entitled Rocket Boys.
27. _________ The writer's father thought Eisenhower was the last "great" President.
28. _________ Early in his life, the writer's father had Parkinson's Disease.
29. _________ Football was brought back to the high school after a one year supsension.
30. _________ The writer wore a tie with a blue jay on it for good luck at the Science
Fair.