Name: Fernando Xiao Date: 3/30/2022

“Ambush”
Tim O’Brien
FIRST READ: Comprehension
Identify the choice that best answers the question.
d 1. Why does the narrator of “Ambush” most likely lie to his daughter when she
asks if he has ever killed anyone?
a. He does not understand why she is asking him.
b. He does not ever want to talk to her about the war.
c. He thinks that she is too young to know the answer.
d. He thinks that she will judge him harshly for what he did.

B,e 2. In “Ambush,” what is the young man in black clothing doing when the narrator
sees and kills him? Choose two options.
a. He is limping from an injury.
b. He is walking slowly up the trail.
c. He is talking quietly to another soldier.
d. He is aiming a grenade at the narrator.
e. He is carrying a gun with the muzzle down.
d 3. In “Ambush,” what does Kiowa do after the narrator kills the young man?
a. He asks the narrator if that man could have passed by without posing a
threat.
b. He orders the narrator to stop staring and then helps him dispose of the
body.
c. He helps the narrator look for soldiers who might have been with that
man.
d. He reminds the narrator that they are soldiers in the middle of a war.

a 4. What does the narrator of “Ambush” do in the present that suggests that the
young man’s death still troubles him?
a. He wonders if the young man would have killed him if their situation
were reversed.
b. He writes about the young man’s death in a journal that his daughter later
finds.
c. He sometimes imagines that the young man’s death never really
happened.
d. He talks about the young man’s death when he sees his friend Kiowa.

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 GRADE 11 • UNIT 6 • SELECTION TEST

"AMBUSH" BY TIM O’BRIEN

Name: Date:

FIRST READ: Selection Vocabulary

Identify the choice that best answers the question.
a 5. What is most likely the meaning of repellent as used in this excerpt from
“Ambush”? Choose the meaning based on context clues in the excerpt.
The mosquitoes were fierce. I remember slapping at them, wondering if I should
wake up Kiowa and ask for some repellent, then thinking it was a bad idea, then
looking up and seeing the young man come out of the fog.

a. a substance that keeps something away

b. an object that is used to clear away brush
c. an instrument that helps one see long distances
d. a covering that protects the skin from sun damage

6. The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B.
b Part A What is most likely the meaning of cocked as it is used in this
sentence from “Ambush”? Base your answer on context.
His shoulders were slightly stooped, his head cocked to the side as if listening for
something.

a. looking toward the front

b. tilted in a particular direction
c. moving back and forth quickly
d. raised briefly to signal greeting

b Part B Which words from the sentence are a context clue that most clearly
supports the answer to Part A?
a. slightly stooped
b. to the side
c. as if listening
d. for something

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 GRADE 11 • UNIT 6 • SELECTION TEST

"AMBUSH" BY TIM O’BRIEN

Name: Date:

C 7. What is most likely the meaning of evaporate as used in this sentence from
“Ambush”? Choose the meaning based on context clues in the sentence.
The grenade was to make him go away—just evaporate—and I leaned back and felt
my mind go empty and then felt it fill up again.

a. run very quickly

b. lose one’s footing
c. disappear entirely
d. become unconscious

CLOSE READ: Analyze the Text

Identify the choice that best answers the question.
8. The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B.
b Part A In “Ambush,” what most likely motivates the narrator to kill the young
man?
a. a deep loyalty to his country
b. an instinctive reaction to his fear
c. a cruel lack of compassion for the enemy
d. a calculated decision to protect his platoon

b Part B Which passage from the selection most clearly supports the answer to
Part A?
a. I did not hate the young man; I did not see him as the enemy; I did not
ponder issues of morality or politics or military duty.
b. I was terrified. There were no thoughts about killing. . . . I had already
thrown the grenade before telling myself to throw it.
c. It occurred to me then that he was about to die. I wanted to warn him.
d. It was not a matter of live or die. . . . Almost certainly the young man
would have passed by.
a. 9.Which inference about the narrator is most clearly supported by this excerpt from
“Ambush”?
The grenade made a popping noise—not soft but not loud either—not what I’d
expected—and there was a puff of dust and smoke—a small white puff—and the
young man seemed to jerk upward as if pulled by invisible wires. He fell on his back.
His rubber sandals had been blown off.

a. He had not heard a grenade explode before.

b. He was not able to hear after the explosion.
c. He was seeing things that did not exist.
d. He had never seen a person die before.

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