Q 01/05

Which Saturday chore does Tom Sawyer con other boys into paying him for the privilege of doing?

A) Chopping firewood

B) Whitewashing a fence

C) Sweeping the schoolhouse

D) Weeding the garden

Answer · why

B) Whitewashing a fence

Whitewashing a fence looks so desirable in Tom's hands that boys trade firecrackers, a tin soldier and twelve marbles for a turn. By mid-afternoon the...

Q 02/05

Which event do Tom Sawyer and two fellow runaways watch in secret from the church gallery?

A) Their own funeral

B) A village wedding

C) A temperance meeting

D) A christening

Answer · why

A) Their own funeral

Their own funeral is in full flow, the town mourning three drowned boys, when they march up the aisle alive. The minister orders a hymn and the congre...

Q 03/05

Which new invention did Mark Twain boast of using to produce the manuscript of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

A) The phonograph

B) The fountain pen

C) The typewriter

D) The mimeograph

Answer · why

C) The typewriter

The typewriter caught Twain's eye in a Boston store in 1874, and he bought one out of curiosity. Researchers found his memory slipped: a later book of...

Q 04/05

Which former riverboat pilot wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer under the pen name Mark Twain?

A) William Sydney Porter

B) Charles Dodgson

C) Theodor Geisel

D) Samuel Clemens

Answer · why

D) Samuel Clemens

Samuel Clemens said he took the name from the riverman's cry for two fathoms, a depth that meant safe water ahead. He spent more than two years earnin...

Q 05/05

Which Canadian rock trio opened their 1981 album Moving Pictures with a song named Tom Sawyer?

A) Rush

B) Triumph

C) Loverboy

D) Saga

Answer · why

A) Rush

Rush built the track on a poem by lyricist Pye Dubois, and it became the band's signature song. Rolling Stone readers voted it the group's best.