English I –J Domangue 80 total points

Name: ____________________________ Class: _____

“By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét

Comprehension. Identify the choice that best answers the question.

1. In “By the Waters of Babylon,” how is John’s society different from the one that came before it?
A. There is no conflict.
B. People only eat plants.
C. Technology is more advanced.
D. People believe in magic, spirits, and demons.

_____2. In “By the Waters of Babylon,” why does John go to the Place of the Gods?
A. To find metal
B. To anger his father
C. To try to gain knowledge
D. To become more powerful

_____3. What do John’s references to gods and magic in “By the Waters of Babylon” most clearly
suggest?
A. John is young and lacks experience.
B. The Great Burning was a recent event.
C. The People of the Hills are social outcasts.
D. John’s people lack true knowledge.

_____4. In “By the Waters of Babylon,” what does John finally realize about the gods?
A. They used magic to cook and wash.
B. They did not know how to read.
C. They were human beings.
D. They still lived in the city.

_____5. What is one central idea of “By the Waters of Babylon”?

A. Life is not always fair.
B. Love can change the world.
C. True wisdom may require knowledge of painful truths.
D. If you do what is forbidden, you will always pay the price.

Concept Vocabulary. Identify the choice that best answers the question.

_____6. What is the most likely way in which water would be purified?
A. By drinking it
B. By bathing in it
C. By sealing it in a large container
D. By removing impurities from it
English I –J Domangue 80 total points

_____7. What would a stern parent most likely do if his or her child misbehaved?
A. Laugh about the child’s behavior
B. Try to explain the child’s behavior
C. Overlook the child’s behavior
D. Punish the child’s behavior

_____8. What must happen when a person is fasting?

A. The person must not eat.
B. The person must rush off.
C. The person must not smile.
D. The person must speak loudly.

Vocabulary Matching. Read the sentence and place the vocabulary word that best fits the
sentence. Choices are used only once.

_____9. During Lent, she spends many Fridays _____ and praying. A. Purified

_____10. The nurse quickly ____ the doctor to the patient’s room. B. Bade

_____11. In November 1827, he once returned to the USA and ____ farewell to public life. C. Stern

_____12. John grew up with a very ____ father who never praised him for his achievements. D. Fasting

_____13. Drinking ____ tap water is must healthier than drinking sugar-filled sodas. E. Custom

_____14. After Thanksgiving, the American ____ is to put up a Christmas tree to prepare for AB. Summoned
the holidays.

Analyzing the Text. Identify the choice that best answers the question.

_____15. What does the following sentence from “By the Waters of Babylon” suggest about the culture of
the story?
A priest must know many secrets—that was what my father said. If the hunters think we do all
things by chants and spells, they may believe so—it does not hurt them.
A. The priests are more educated and powerful than the hunters are.
B. Only men can become priests and learn their secrets.
C. The hunters know far more than the priests do.
D. The hunters worship the priests as gods.

_____16. Part A—After which of these events does “By the Waters of Babylon” most likely take place?
A. A violent bank robbery
B. A deadly tornado
C. A destructive war
D. A great flood

_____17. Part B—Which of these passages best supports the answer to Part A?
English I –J Domangue 80 total points

A. After a time, I myself was allowed to go into the dead houses and search for metal. So I learned the
ways of those houses—and if I saw bones, I was no longer afraid. The bones are light and old—
sometimes they will fall into dust if you touch them.
B. Yet, after a while, my eyes were opened and I saw both banks of the river—I saw that once there had
been god-roads across it, though now they were broken and fallen like broken vines. Very great they
were, and wonderful and broken—broken in the time of the Great Burning when the fire fell out of
the sky.
C. I do not know the customs of rivers—we are the People of the Hills. I tried to guide my raft with the
pole but it spun around, I thought the river meant to take me past the Place of the Gods and out into
the Bitter Water of the legends.
D. I was in a long small chamber—on one side of it was a bronze door that could not be opened, for it
had no handle. Perhaps there was a magic word to open it, but I did not have the word. I turned to
the door in the opposite side of the wall. The lock of it was broken and I opened it and went in.

_____18. John sees the city “as it had been when the gods were alive.” What is he seeing?
A. The city’s future
B. A terrifying nightmare
C. A view of another planet
D. New York City in the past

_____19. What conclusion can you draw from this passage?

“There was also the shattered image of a man or a god. It had been made of white stone and he
wore his hair tied back like a woman’s. His name was ASHING…”
A. The gods had a leader named Ashing.
B. The image is a statue of George Washington.
C. Some people considered George Washington a god.
D. The gods had greater respect for men than for women.

_____20. Part A—Which of these statements best expresses the attitude toward knowledge conveyed by
John’s father near the end of the story?
A. Knowledge should be pursued at all costs.
B. Too much new information can disrupt a society.
C. We must all seek the truth about the world’s mysteries.
D. We should never break society’s rules in order to pursue knowledge.

_____21. Part B—Which of these passages best supports the answer to Part A?
A. These are the rules and the laws: they are well made. It is forbidden to cross the great river and look
upon the place that was the Place of the Gods—this is most strictly forbidden.
B. Nevertheless, my knowledge and my lack of knowledge burned in me—
I wished to know more. When I was a man at last, I came to my father and said, “It is time for me to go
on my journey. Give me your leave.”
C. It is a great knowledge, hard to tell and believe. They were men—they went a dark road, but they were
men.
D. After that, I wished to tell all the people but he showed me otherwise. He said, “Truth is a hard deer
to hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of the truth. …”

Analyze Craft and Structure. Identify the choice that best answers the question.
English I –J Domangue 80 total points

_____22. From what point of view is “By the Waters of Babylon” narrated?
A. first-person, by John
B. first-person, by John’s father
C. third person, limited to John’s thoughts and experiences
D. third-person, providing thoughts and experiences of any characters

_____23. How does the story offer a strong example of dramatic irony?
A. John undertakes a quest to the Place of the Gods, even though it is forbidden.
B. The narrator knows more about the Place of the Gods than the reader does.
C. The reader understands more about the Place of the Gods than John does.
D. John finally learns the truth about the gods.

_____24. How does the use of dramatic irony affect readers?

A. It creates a feeling of humor.
B. It creates a feeling of calm.
C. It creates a feeling of suspense.
D. It creates a feeling of reality.

Word Study. Identify the choice that best answers the question.

_____25. One definition of the word found is “to set up.” Listed below are four words with their
definitions in quotation marks. Which word belongs to the same word family as found?
A. find; “to locate”
B. foundation; “the beginning”
C. befuddled; “confused”
D. flounder; “to struggle”

_____26. The word bade is the past tense of the word bid. Bid comes from the Old English word bēodan
meaning “to offer, command.” The prefix for- means “against.” Given this information, what can you
most logically conclude is the meaning of forbade, a word in the same word family as bade?
A. invited in
B. called attention to
C. refused to allow something
D. made something challenging

Language Development. Identify the choice that best answers the question.

_____27. Read the following excerpt.

Nevertheless, we make a beginning. It is not for the metal alone we go to the Dead
Places now—there are the books and the writings. They are hard to learn. And the
magic tools are broken—but we can look at them and wonder.
How does the author use dashes to develop John’s character in the story?

A. to show how awkward John is at communicating

B. to intensify moments in the story when John is angry
C. to emphasize that John is very frightened about the future
D. to create the impression that John is actually speaking

_____28. Read the following passage.

English I –J Domangue 80 total points

Nevertheless, we make a beginning. It is not for the metal alone we go to the Dead
Places now—there are the books and the writings. They are hard to learn. And the
magic tools are broken—but we can look at them and wonder. At least, we make a
beginning. And, when I am chief priest we shall go beyond the great river. We shall go
to the Place of the Gods—the place newyork—not one man but a company. We shall
look for the images of the gods and find the god ASHING and the others—the gods
Lincoln and Biltmore and Moses. But they were men who built the city, not gods or
demons. They were men. I remember the dead man’s face. They were men who were
here before us. We must build again.
Which of these choices best describes John’s diction (word choice) and syntax (sentence structure) in
the passage?
A. formal diction and simple syntax
B. informal diction and informal syntax
C. unlimited diction and familiar syntax
D. careless diction and formal syntax

Figurative Devices. Match each device to its correct example. Choices may be used more than
once.

_____29. Apparently you should always start a discussion paragraph with a A. simile
topic sentence. Who knew? B. parallel structure
C. metaphor
_____30. He pleaded for her forgiveness, but Janet’s heart was cold iron.
D. oxymoron
_____31. Half of the class clearly misunderstood the teacher’s directions. E. personification
AB. rhetorical question
_____32. I wanted to eat waffles for breakfast, but they were freezer burnt
when I pulled them out of the freezer.

_____33. When I talk back to my mom, she gets as mad as a hornet.

_____34. I took a shower, but I was not dirty.

_____35. The fire swallowed the entire forest and ended up spreading
throughout the town.
_____36. The computer in the classroom was an old dinosaur.

_____37. “Yes, I slapped my sister, but does it look like I care!?”

_____38. The words appeared to leap off of the page as she read the story.

Figurative Devices. Match each device to its correct example from the story.

_____39. “How shall I tell what I saw?” A. simile

_____40. “It is there that spirits live.” B. parallel structure

_____41. The current of the river gripped my raft with its hands.” C. metaphor
English I –J Domangue 80 total points

D. oxymoron

_____42. “Truth is a hard deer to hunt.” E. personification

_____43. “There was a cooking-place but no wood.” AB. rhetorical question

_____44. “There was a roaring in my ear like a rushing of rivers.”

Word Study. One of your vocab words is “purified.” Because you know what “purified” means
and that it contains the root –pur-, you should use that information to choose the word that fits
in each sentence.

A. pure D. pureed
B. purge E. purified
C. impure AB. puritanical

_____45. I had so many things in my closet that I needed to ____ about half of them.
_____46. The quality of the medicine was spoiled because the pharmacist was forced to use ____
ingredients.
_____47. I ____ the tomatoes and added the spices according to my grandmother’s recipe.
_____48. Joshua ____ the water using chlorine and iodine tablets.
_____49. The noble warrior was able to pass through the gates because his heart was ____.
_____50. Logan is ____ in her ways; she thinks that stepping off the curb while the “DON’T WALK” sign
is flashing is a major traffic infraction.

Comprehension. Identify the choice that best answers the question.

_____51. In “By the Waters of Babylon,” which period represents “the beginning of time” for John's
society?
A. before the evolution of the human species
B. before the onset of the Industrial Revolution
C. after human beings learned to use fire
D. after the destruction of modern civilization

_____52. The point of view used in the story causes the reader to ____.
A. strongly identify with John
B. judge the narrator to be ignorant
C. believe in magic
D. see the world in a new way

_____53. What must John overcome in order to cross the river?

A. the Forest People
B. a wild panther
C. his own fears
D. a raging fire
English I –J Domangue 80 total points

_____54. What does John discover in the Place of the Gods?

A. the ground burns forever
B. an island covered in fog
C. the ruins of a destroyed city
D. a forest with many animals

_____55. What is one possible theme of the story?

A. the end of human society is near
B. history will probably repeat itself if things do not change
C. the hostility between different groups of people is a terrible thing
D. human constructions are often frail and weak