Quiz Questions

Analyzing the Text
Quiz Questions

1) What is the name of the grocery store that Steinbeck discusses in Chapter One?

A. Centreville Grocery  
B. Monterey Corner Store  
C. Lee Chong’s  
D. There is no grocery store in Cannery Row

2) Who does virtually every person in Cannery Row owe money to?

A. Doc  
B. Lee Chong  
C. Mack  
D. The Bank

3) What is the name of the man who killed himself in Chapter One?

A. Horace Abbeville  
B. Horace Melville  
C. Abe Johnson  
D. William

4) What did the man who killed himself give to Lee Chong right before he killed himself?

A. Money  
B. The property that would eventually become the Flophouse  
C. The property that would eventually become the Monterey Cannery  
D. Nothing

5) How does Steinbeck describe Dora Flood?

A. “decent, clean, [and] honest”
B. “cheap, dishonest, [and] uncaring”
C. “unkempt, unclean, [and] poor”
D. There is no character named Dora Flood.

6) What is the name of the watchmen who killed himself in Chapter Three?

A. John  
B. William  
C. Mack  
D. Alfred

7) Who replaced the watchman who killed himself in Chapter Three?

A. William  
B. Billy  
C. Alfred  
D. Mack

Chapter Four
8) Who was the only person brave enough to cross the “old Chinaman?”

A. Mack  
B. Lee Chong  
C. Andy  
D. Billy

9) Who owns Western Biological?

A. Dora Flood  
B. The Monterey Cannery  
C. Doc  
D. California State University

10) What item does Doc always wear, even during the summer?

A. A gold pocket watch  
B. A rain hat  
C. Rain boots  
D. A lucky shirt

11) According to Steinbeck, which of the following characters loved to “hear conversation but […] didn’t listen to words - just to the tone of conversation” in Chapter Six?

A. Mack  
B. Doc  
C. Hazel  
D. Henri

12) Which character claims to be abused by his wife?

A. Gay  
B. Doc  
C. Henri  
D. Mack

13) Which character loves boats, but is afraid of the ocean?

A. Alfred  
B. Henri  
C. Mack  
D. Doc

14) What does Steinbeck call “the gold tooth of the palace” in Chapter Seven?

A. A rare piece of art  
B. A grandfather clock  
C. A stove  
D. A collection of wine bottles

15) Who fills in as the understudy bartender at La Ida?

A. Henri  
B. Eddie  
C. Mack  
D. Doc

16) How did Eddie create the “punch” that he, Mack, and the boys were so fond of?

A. They didn’t drink any punch  
B. Adding the leftover drinks of customers from La Ida into a bottle  
C. Using orange juice and seltzer  
D. Using beer and milk

17) Who do Mack and the boys refer to as “a hell of a nice fella” in Chapter Seven?

A. Henri  
B. Lee Chong  
C. Doc  
D. God

18) According to Mack, why do he and the boys have such “good reputations?”

A. Because “we don’t cheat nobody out of nothin’ they don’t need.”
B. Because they don’t beat up women  
C. Because “[e]every one of us keeps a job from a month or more when we take one.”
D. Because they do a lot of volunteer work around the community.

19) What couple lives in an abandoned boiler?

A. Mr. and Mrs. Malloy  
B. Mr. and Mrs. Jones  
C. Mr. and Mrs. Flood  
D. No one lives in a boiler.

20) What distinctive feature did Mrs. Malloy want to add to the boiler?

A. Indoor plumbing  
B. Paint
C. Curtains
D. Carpeting

21) What kind of sea creature did Doc and Hazel try to catch in the beginning of the story?

A. Frogs  
B. Starfish  
C. Octopi  
D. Fish

22) When Mack approaches Doc about “get[ting] some dough,” Doc tells Mack that he “could use three or four hundred _____________.”

A. Sardines  
B. Starfish  
C. Frogs  
D. Tadpoles

23) Why is Doc wary of Mack and the boys?

A. Because his dealings with them are rarely profitable  
B. Because they once threatened him in order to get money  
C. Because Mack is secretly his brother, though Mack doesn’t know it  
D. Because Gay married the woman he was in love with

24) Why does Lee Chong eventually allow Mack and the boys to use his truck?

A. Because they agree to fix it  
B. Because they tell him that it’s for Doc  
C. Because Mack threatens him  
D. Because they agree to pay him for using it

25) What young boy started hanging around Western Biological when he was eleven?

A. Frankie  
B. Fred  
C. Billy  
D. Mack

26) What did Frankie try to do at one of Doc’s parties, but ultimately didn’t succeed at?

A. Serve drinks  
B. Sing  
C. Dance  
D. Light cigarettes

27) Which of Mack’s ‘boys’ fixed Lee Chong’s truck?

A. Eddie  
B. Henri  
C. Hazel  
D. Gay

28) In regards to hunters, Steinbeck wrote that “[c]ity hunters going out for sport load themselves with food and liquor, but not Mack. He presumed rightly that the _____________ was where food came from.”

A. Factory  
B. Country  
C. Earth  
D. Sea

29) What kind of truck does Steinbeck write about in chapter Eleven?

A. A Toyota  
B. The Ford Model T  
C. The Chevy  
D. He doesn’t write about a truck

30) Which one of Mack’s “boys” was imprisoned in Chapter Eleven?

A. Gay  
B. Hazel  
C. Eddie  
D. Henri

31) Why did Mack and the boys borrow Lee Chong’s Model T?

A. To collect Frogs for Doc  
B. To find a puppy to adopt  
C. To buy alcohol from a neighboring city  
D. To run from the law

32) How old is Mack?

A. 28  
B. 45  
C. 48  
D. 32

33) According to Mack, why “can’t [you] trust a married guy”?

A. Because he doesn’t know how to have fun anymore  
B. Because he will always go back to his wife  
C. Because he’ll steal money to buy things for his wife  
D. Because his wife will come and steal him away

34) What does the man who Mack calls “Captain” in Chapter Thirteen lie about?

A. His name  
B. That he isn’t married  
C. That his dog is a “Virginia dog”
D. That he didn’t know what a frog was

35) What does Mack offer to do for the “Captain” in Chapter Thirteen?

A. Nothing  
B. Make a poultice to help his dog feel better  
C. Kill him a deer for dinner  
D. Pay him for letting him and the boys catch frogs on his land

36) According to Steinbeck, when does the “magic” of Cannery Row occur?

A. The summer  
B. Nighttime  
C. Early Morning  
D. Christmas

37) According to Steinbeck, how many frogs were in the pond near the “Captain’s” house?

A. “Thousands”
B. “Hundreds”
C. “None”
D. “Millions”

38) According to Steinbeck, “the busiest time the girls of the Bear Flag ever had was the March _____________”

A. “the new factory opened”
B. “of the big sardine catch”
C. “that the men came home from war”
D. “that there were no other women in Canner Row”

39) What illness did the citizens of Cannery Row contract in Chapter Sixteen?

A. Scarlet Fever  
B. Yellow Fever  
C. Influenza  
D. The mumps

40) What attraction did Holman’s Department Store create to draw in more customers?

A. A flag-pole sitter  
B. A flag-pole skater  
C. A painter  
D. A clown

41) According to Steinbeck, why did it take longer for Doc to travel than it did for other people?

A. Because he “was old”
B. Because he “didn’t drive fast and he stopped and ate hamburgers very often”
C. Because he “liked to stop and take a lot of pictures”
D. Because he “collected a lot of animal specimens along the way”

42) What did Doc always want to try, but was too afraid to try when other who knew him were around?

A. Dancing  
B. A chicken sandwich  
C. A beer milk shake  
D. Singing

43) Why did Doc kick a hitchhiker out of his car?

A. Because the man criticized drunk driving  
B. Because the man criticized his mother  
C. Because the man insulted Canner Row  
D. Because the man said that Western Biological was immoral

44) What did Doc find in the ocean that makes him feel sick?

A. A bloody shirt  
B. A dead body  
C. A dead dear  
D. A dead whale

45) What caused Richard Frost to become so agitated in Chapter Nineteen?

A. He wanted to be the pole-skater for Holman’s Department Store  
B. He had an affair  
C. He discovered that his wife had an affair  
D. He wanted to know how the pole-skater used the restroom

46) In Chapter Twenty, what reason does Mack give for Lee Chong being indebted to Doc?

A.Doc helped Lee Chong immigrate successfully to the United States  
B. Doc owns the land that Lee’s Grocery stands on  
C. Doc gave Lee Chong’s wife laudanum for a bad tooth  
D. Doc loaned Lee Chong money during the depression

47) Instead of using cash, how did Mack and the boys pay Lee Chong for groceries?

A. Starfish  
B. Labor  
C. Whiskey  
D. Frogs

48) What did Mack name his puppy?

A. Old Yeller  
B. Darling  
C. Strawberry  
D. Jack

49) What happened to all of the frogs that Mack and the boys caught for Doc?

A. They were stolen  
B. They were accidentally cooked  
C. They escaped  
D. They died

50) When Doc came home to find the mess of the first ‘party,’ how did he greet Mack?

A. By giving him a hug
B. By punching him in the face  
C. By yelling at him  
D. By thanking him

51) Why did Doc refuse Mack’s offer to pay for all of the damage to the Laboratory?

A. Because deep down, Doc felt like the damage was his fault because he did not lock the Laboratory door.  
B. Because he knew that Mack would never really pay him back  
C. Because Doc was a “nice guy”
D. Because Doc was planning to remodel the Laboratory anyways

Chapter Twenty-Two
52) Why was Henri so finicky about his boat?

A. Because he really wasn’t a good boat builder  
B. Because he was an artist  
C. Because if he finished the boat, he would have to pay back a loan he owed the bank  
D. Because he never wanted to finish his boat

53) After the failure of the ‘party,’ who was the only happy individual at the Palace Flophouse?

A. Mack  
B. Henri  
C. Eddie  
D. Darling

54) Who does Doc call the “true philosophers”?

A. Mack and the boys  
B. Dora’s girls  
C. The men of the factories  
D. The creatures of the ocean

55) What is the major turning point for Mack and the boys in the story?

A. When no one will talk to them anymore  
B. When their party for Doc fails  
C. When Darling gets sick  
D. When they don’t have any food

56) What animal does Mrs. Talbot invite to her ‘tea parties’?

A. Imaginary Penguins  
B. Dogs  
C. Birds  
D. Cats

57) What did Dora’s girls plan on giving Doc for his ‘birthday’?

A. Money  
B. A quilt  
C. A free night at the Bear Flag  
D. Alcohol

58) What does Frankie try to steal as a present for Doc’s ‘birthday’?

A. A whistle  
B. A clock  
C. A set of wine glasses  
D. New windows

59) What reason does Frankie give Doc when Doc asks him why he tried to steal something for his birthday?

A. That he loves him  
B. That he needed money  
C. That his mother didn’t love him  
D. That Doc was like a father to him

60) What animal appears in Chapter Thirty-One?

A. A dog  
B. A cat  
C. A gopher  
D. A mouse

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