SparkNotes: Walden: Quiz

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1. What, in the chapter “Sounds,” does Thoreau describe as having the roar of a fierce beast?

(A) A wolf

(B) A moose

(D) A riverboat

2. In what town did Thoreau spend most of his life?

(A) Boston

(B) Concord

(D) Providence

3. What college did Thoreau attend?

(A) Amherst

(B) Harvard

(D) Yale

4. In what season does Thoreau conclude his stay at Walden Pond?

(A) Summer

(B) Winter

(D) Spring

5. When did Thoreau move in to his house at Walden Pond?

(A) 1836

(B) 1845

(D) 1854

6. What, according to Thoreau, do the mass of men lead?

(A) Lives of quiet deprecation

(B) Lives of quiet derivation

(D) Lives of quiet deviation

7. Which of the following was closest to Thoreau’s house at Walden Pond?

(A) A canal

(B) A mill

(D) A school

8. What was the approximate maximum number of visitors that Thoreau received in his house at a single time?

(A) One

(B) Three

(D) Thirty

9. Which crop did Thoreau raise in the greatest quantity?

(A) Beans

(B) Peas

(D) Turnips

10. What war was the United States involved in during Thoreau’s stay at Walden Pond?

(A) The Civil War

(B) The French and Indian War

(D) The Spanish-American War

11. For what was Thoreau put into jail by the town constable?

(A) Perjury

(B) Tax evasion

(D) Trespass

12. Which of the following is not the name of a pond Thoreau describes?

(A) Flints’ Pond

(B) Golden Pond

(D) White Pond

13. When Thoreau encounters a woodchuck in the woods, how does he react?

(A) He wants to paint a picture of it

(B) He wants to speak with it

(D) He wants to eat it

14. Which poet made frequent visits to Thoreau’s cabin at Walden?

(A) William Ellery Channing

(B) Emily Dickinson

(D) William Wordsworth

15. Between what creatures does Thoreau witness a battle?

(A) Ants

(B) Mice

(D) Cats

16. Which philosopher pays a lengthy visit to Thoreau’s cabin at Walden?

(A) Amos Bronson Alcott

(B) George Santayana

(D) William James

17. To what does Thoreau partly attribute John Field’s poverty?

(A) His physical handicaps

(B) His small farm

(D) His Irish heritage

18. Approximately how deep is Walden Pond at its deepest point?

(A) 10 feet

(B) 50 feet

(D) 500 feet

19. Why do a large group of men arrive at Walden Pond in the winter of 1846–1847?

(A) To chop down a number of trees

(B) To clear the pond of ice for commercial sale

(D) To pressure Thoreau into paying the debts he has accumulated in back-taxes

20. Which of the following does Thoreau value most highly?

(A) Fame

(B) Love

(D) Truth

21. What, as Thoreau describes it at the end of the work, is the sun?

(A) A lantern in the sky

(B) A morning star

(D) A symbol of our lives

22. What was the title of Thoreau’s first published book?

(A) A Week on the Merrimack and Concord Rivers

(B) “Civil Disobedience”

(D) Walden

23. What cause did Thoreau take up most earnestly in the 1850s?

(A) Abolitionism

(B) Labor Reform

(D) Women’s Suffrage

24. What is Thoreau’s interaction with the loon mentioned at the end of “Brute Neighbors”?

(A) He is imitating it

(B) He is painting it

(D) He is playing with it

25. What color is the ice of Walden Pond?

(A) Bluish

(B) Yellowish

(D) Greenish