Chapter XIV: Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors Quiz — Walden Pond

Why does Thoreau begin recalling the former inhabitants of Walden Woods?

• He is conducting historical research for a book
• He needs imagined company because deep winter snow keeps visitors away
• His neighbors ask him to document the history of the area
• He wants to prove that Walden Woods was once a thriving village

What happened to Cato Ingraham's walnut trees?

• They were cut down for firewood during winter
• They died in a drought
• A younger and whiter speculator got them
• Thoreau harvested them for his cabin

How does Thoreau characterize the "demon" that destroyed the Breed family?

• Gambling addiction
• New-England Rum (alcoholism)
• A literal supernatural entity
• Land speculation and debt

What does Thoreau find when he visits Hugh Quoil's abandoned house?

• A well-kept home with food still on the table
• Nothing — the house had already been demolished
• Clothes on a plank bed, a broken pipe, scattered playing cards, and a black chicken
• Books and manuscripts left behind by the previous owner

Who is the philosopher winter visitor widely believed to be Amos Bronson Alcott?

• The farmer who comes for a "social crack"
• The man described as "perhaps the sanest man" who should keep a caravansary
• The poet who braves the worst storms
• Hugh Quoil, the former soldier

What does Thoreau call "a sorrowful act" coincident with "the opening of wells of tears"?

• The burning of Zilpha's house
• The death of Hugh Quoil
• The covering up of wells
• The cutting down of Brister's apple trees

What Eastern religious text does Thoreau quote at the end of the chapter?

• The Bhagavad Gita
• The Upanishads
• The Vishnu Purana
• The Tao Te Ching

What comparison does Thoreau draw between Napoleon and Hugh Quoil?

• Both were great military strategists
• Napoleon went to St. Helena; Quoil came to Walden Woods
• Both died in exile from their homeland
• Both were admired by the people of Concord

True or False: Thoreau personally witnessed the burning of Breed's hut on Election night.

True or False: Thoreau met and spoke with Hugh Quoil before Quoil died.

In the sentence "I was pleased to hear that so fictile an art was ever practiced in my neighborhood," what does "fictile" mean?

• Fictional or imaginary
• Capable of being molded or shaped, especially clay
• Delicate and easily broken
• Ancient and outdated

What does "sufferance" mean when Thoreau writes that the potters held "the land by sufferance while they lived"?

• Great physical pain and hardship
• Legal ownership through inheritance
• Passive tolerance without formal approval
• A rental agreement with the town

When Thoreau calls the philosopher "ingenuus," he means the philosopher is:

• Extremely clever and inventive
• Naive and easily deceived
• Freeborn and not bound by institutions
• Generous with his possessions