Name __________________________________________ Date ____________

To Kill a Mockingbird — Chapters 1-4 Quiz

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase. The blanks that fall inside
quotation marks need to be answered with the exact word or phrase from the novel.

Chapter 1
Harper Lee’s American classic opens with this line: “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got
his arm badly broken at the _____1_____.”

Hinting at the story’s time period, the narrator tells readers, “Maycomb County had recently been told
that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.” This reference is to the 1933 inaugural address given by
______2______ Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The narrator’s _____3_____ died of a heart attack when the storyteller was only two. Jem, though, was
four years old, and sometimes he remembered her and missed her.

As the action begins to pick up, readers find that the children are older now. The narrator is almost
___4___ years old, and Jem is nearly ___5___ years old.

When the children meet Dill for the first time, readers discover that Jem calls his sibling _____6_____.
It’s probably a nickname.

Many readers are confused about the narrator’s gender, but at this point in the novel enough details
should make it clear that our young storyteller is a _____7_____.

The Radley house down the street fascinates Dill. The strange and reclusive neighbors reportedly have a
____8____ whose rumored nighttime behavior is at best odd, and at worst disturbing and criminal.

When Arthur “Boo” Radley was a teenager, he once got in a bit of trouble with the police, and his father
guaranteed the judge that the boy would be no further problem. After that none of the neighbors saw
Boo for the next 15 years, although they all knew he had to be in the _____9_____.

When Boo was seen again it too was because of a criminal matter. The gossiper Miss Stephanie told Jem
that 15 years ago Boo stabbed his own father in the leg with a pair of _____10_____. His mother came
running out into the street, exclaiming that Boo was killing them all. Boo was 33 years old then.

Chapter 2
Scout does not have a good morning on the first day at school. First, for a reason not disclosed,
_______11_______ smacks her _____12_____ with a ruler and makes her stand in the corner. Then,
Scout gets scolded because Atticus has taught her to _____13_____. Then, because it is an apparent no-
no in first grade, she gets caught writing in cursive, a skill ______14______ taught her. Finally, she tries
to explain to Miss Caroline the way the _______15_______ family lives, particularly their habit of
refusing to accept anything they know they can’t ______16______. This, too, results in some ruler
smacks on the _____17_____ and more time in the corner.

Chapter 3
In the schoolyard, on their way home for lunch, Scout beats on __________18____________ for getting
her in trouble, but Jem invites him back to their house for the noon-time meal.

When ______19______ dumps molasses all over his meat and vegetables, Scout embarrasses him, and
Calpurnia, the Finch’s cook, scolds her in the kitchen. When Scout talks back, Cal says, “‘Hush your
mouth! Don’t matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house’s yo’ ______20______, and don’t
you let me catch you remarkin’ on their ways like you was so high and mighty! Yo’ folks might be
better’n the ______21______ but it don’t count for nothin’ the way you’re disgracin’ em.’”

Calpurnia, suggesting her role might be greater than just her job as _____22_____ for the Finch family,
sends Scout “through the swinging door to the dining room with a stinging smack.”

In a pre-afternoon pep talk on the porch, Atticus tries to explain something to his daughter before she
heads back to school. He says, “‘First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot
better with all kinds of folks. You never really ______23______ a person until you consider things from
his point of view … until you climb into his _____24_____ and walk around in it.’” Is he talking about
Walter Cunningham and the newbie teacher Miss Caroline?

There’s more drama back at school when Miss Caroline spots an enormous bug in Burris ____25____’s
hair. When she tries to send him home for the day and asks him to come back tomorrow having bathed,
the three-time repeater of first grade has some choice words for her. He says, “‘Ain’t no snot-nose slut
of a schoolteacher ever born c’n make me do nothin’.’”

Later that evening Atticus and Scout discuss several topics, including the necessity of her going to
school, and the _____26____ family. Scout summarizes her father’s words when she tells readers,
“Atticus said the Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations. None of them had
done an honest day’s work in his recollection.”

Chapter 4
On her way home from school one day, Scout finds two pieces of ____27____ in the knothole of a tree
by the Radley house, and on the last day of school, Jem and Scout find two Indian-head ____28____ in
the same knothole. Who could be leaving them there, they wonder?

In retaliation for some wise crack comment she made earlier, Jem pushes Scout, rolled up in a tire, into
the Radley lot. She bumps into the steps and pops out of the tire. Readers learn at the very end of the
chapter that a dizzy and nauseated Scout heard what she thought was _____29_____ come from inside
the house.

Atticus catches the kids playing a game Dill calls “Boo Radley,” scolds them for it, and takes away the
____30____ Jem was using as a prop in his role as Boo.
Answer Key

1 elbow
2 president
3 mother
46
5 10
6 Scout
7 girl
8 son
9 house
10 scissors
11 Miss Caroline
12 palm / hand
13 read
14 Calpurnia
15 Cunningham
16 pay back
17 palm / hand
18 Walter Cunningham
19 Walter
20 comp’ny
21 Cunninghams
22 cook
23 understand
24 skin
25 Ewell
26 Ewell
27 chewing gum
28 pennies
29 laughter / laughing
30 scissors