***Reading Comprehension Worksheet!***
Read the story carefully and answer
the following questions.
Analyzing O! Pioneers
Willa
Cather’s 1910 novel, O! Pioneers, follows a Swedish family of farmers in
Nebraska. In this passage, John Bergson is dying and worries about what will
become of his wife and young children. Alexandra is the oldest Bergson child.
Alexandra,
her father often said to himself, was like her grandfather; which was his way
of saying that she was intelligent. John Bergson’s father had been a
shipbuilder, a man of considerable force and of some fortune. Late in life he
married a second time, a
Stockholm
woman of questionable character, much younger than he, who goaded him into
every sort of extravagance. On the shipbuilder’s part, this marriage was an
infatuation, the despairing folly of a powerful man who cannot bear to grow
old. In a few years his unprincipled wife warped the probity of a lifetime. He
speculated, lost his own fortune and funds entrusted to him by poor seafaring
men, and died disgraced, leaving his children nothing. But when all was said,
he had come up from the sea himself, had built up a proud little business with
no capital but his own skill and foresight, and had proved himself a man. In
his daughter, John Bergson recognized the strength of will, and the simple
direct way of thinking things out, that had characterized his father in his
better days. He would much rather, of course, have seen this likeness in one of
his sons, but it was not a question of choice. As he lay there day after day he
had to accept the situation as it was, and to be thankful that there was one among
his children to whom he could entrust the future of his family and the
possibilities of his hard-won land.
Questions:
1. What is
the main concern of John Bergson in the passage?
a) His
failing health
b) The
prosperity of his shipbuilding business
c) The
welfare of his wife and children
d) The
questionable character of his father's second wife
2. Why does John Bergson compare Alexandra to her grandfather?
a) Due to
her questionable character
b) Because
of her intelligence
c) Her
forceful personality
d) Her
extravagant lifestyle
3. What
impact did John Bergson's second wife have on the family's fortune?
a) She
increased their wealth
b) She
maintained their fortune
c) She
warped the probity of a lifetime
d) She saved
them from financial ruin
4. Why did
John Bergson's father's marriage to a Stockholm woman become a source of
despair for him?
a) She was
younger than him
b) She
goaded him into extravagance
c) She was
of questionable character
d) She was
from Stockholm
5. What was
the shipbuilder's infatuation in the passage?
a) Building
ships
b) His
second marriage
c) Growing
old
d) Losing
his fortune
6. What did
John Bergson's father leave for his children after his death?
a) A vast
fortune
b) Nothing
c) A
successful shipbuilding business
d) A
tarnished reputation
7. In what
way did John Bergson accept the situation as it was?
a) With
anger and resentment
b) With
thankfulness and resignation
c) By
blaming his daughter
d) By
disowning his sons
8. What did
John Bergson entrust to Alexandra?
a) His
shipbuilding business
b) His
failing health
c) The
future of his family and land
d) His
unprincipled wife
9. What does
the passage suggest about Alexandra's characteristics?
a) She is
extravagant
b) She is
forceful and intelligent
c) She is of
questionable character
d) She is
despairing
10. Why
would John Bergson have preferred to see the likeness in one of his sons?
a) His sons
were more intelligent
b) His sons
were more forceful
c) It was a
matter of choice
d) He did
not want a daughter to take charge
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