The Silver Sword: Comprehension & Multiple-choice Tests

Posted on Oct 26, 2024 in English

The Silver Sword Comprehension Test

By Ian Serraillier

1. Put the following events in the story in the right order. Number them 1-10.

  1. Ruth decides to go to Switzerland.
  2. American soldiers put Jan in prison.
  3. Joseph gives Jan the sword.
  4. Ruth, Edek and Bronia find their parents.
  5. Joseph escapes from prison.
  6. The children escape by canoe.
  7. The children stay on the Wolffs farm.
  8. Joe takes the children to a refugee camp by Lake Constance.
  9. Ruth and Bronia meet Jan.
  10. Ruth and Bronia find Edek.

2. Who said this in the story? Who did they say it to?

Choose from: Jan, Ruth, Bronia, Joseph, the Wolffs, Ivan (the Russian soldier), Greenwood (the American captain).

  1. “I’ll give you this sword if you do something for me.” Joseph to Jan
  2. “The whole of Warsaw wants to see my officer.” Ivan to Ruth
  3. “He was going to Switzerland to find your mother.” Jan to Ruth
  4. “We don’t have enough money to pay 200 marks.” Ruth to Greenwood
  5. “I’ll remember you forever.” Bronia to the Wolffs

3. Look at this picture and answer the questions.

(Note: The picture is not included in the provided text.)

  1. Who is this?
  2. What has he just left?
  3. Where does he want to go?
  4. Why does he want to go there?
  5. Does he get there?

4. Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)?

  1. Ruth’s mother is Swiss. T
  2. Edek was caught taking a chicken to the city. F
  3. When they met, Jan liked Edek. F
  4. Jan stopped the trains to take food. T
  5. Both the Wolffs’ sons were dead. T
  6. The Burgomaster said they could stay with the Wolffs. F
  7. Jan wanted to go back to the Wolffs for the sword. T
  8. The I.T.S. helped children to find their parents. T
  9. The I.T.S found Jan’s parents. F
  10. Ruth married a Frenchman. T

5. Can you describe how the children travelled from Posen to Switzerland?

(Students’ individual answers.)

The Silver Sword Multiple-choice Test

By Ian Serraillier

Setting

Choose the best answer.
  1. The story is about a family in _____ during the Second World War.
    1. Germany
    2. Russia
    3. Switzerland
    4. Poland
  2. The father and mother were taken to _____.
    1. America
    2. Russia
    3. prison camps
    4. live on a farm
  3. It was _____ when Joseph was taken away.
    1. 1950
    2. 1945
    3. 1940
    4. 1948
  4. The children left their house to escape from _____.
    1. the Americans
    2. their parents
    3. the Nazis
    4. the Polish police
  5. During the first winter and spring the children lived _____.
    1. in a cellar
    2. on a farm
    3. in a prison
    4. in a school
  6. In the early summer they went to live in a _____ outside the city.
    1. forest
    2. school
    3. camp
    4. prison
  7. They began to walk _____ to Switzerland.
    1. south
    2. north
    3. east
    4. west
  8. After _____ left, the children had to look after themselves.
    1. Edek
    2. Jan
    3. Ruth
    4. Ivan
  9. _____ passed without news of Edek.
    1. Six months
    2. Two years
    3. Two weeks
    4. Three years
  10. By January 1945, the Nazis were gone and Warsaw was in the control of _____.
    1. the Russians
    2. the Americans
    3. the Polish
    4. the Swiss

Characters

Choose the best answer.
  1. Joseph Balicki was _____.
    1. a German Soldier
    2. a farmer in Poland
    3. the headmaster of a school
    4. an American guard
  2. Joseph’s wife, Margrit, was _____.
    1. Polish
    2. Swiss
    3. German
    4. American
  3. Joseph and Margrit had _____ children.
    1. three
    2. four
    3. five
    4. two
  4. Mrs Krause was _____.
    1. the mother of Jan
    2. a prisoner with Joseph
    3. the mother of a child at Joseph’s school
    4. a teacher at Joseph’s school
  5. Joseph met Jan in _____.
    1. Warsaw
    2. the prison
    3. Switzerland
    4. Germany
  6. Jan kept the sword in _____.
    1. a wooden box
    2. the cellar of the house
    3. the lorry
    4. the prison
  7. Jan had a cockerel called _____.
    1. Jumpy
    2. Bumpy
    3. Scrumpy
    4. Jimpy
  8. Ruth found her new life difficult until she _____.
    1. met Jan
    2. went to the prison
    3. started the school
    4. went to Germany
  9. Frau Wolff’s sons were _____.
    1. German soldiers
    2. American soldiers
    3. prison guards
    4. Polish soldiers
  10. After the war, Ruth went _____.
    1. to Zurich university
    2. to France
    3. back to Warsaw
    4. to America

Dialogue

Who said this?
  1. “What happened to my wife?”
    1. Mr Krause
    2. a German soldier
    3. Joseph
    4. an American soldier
  2. “I’ll give you this sword if you do something for me”
    1. Mr Krause
    2. Joseph
    3. Jan
    4. Mrs Krause
  3. “We’ll have to go over the roof.”
    1. Jan
    2. Ruth
    3. Edek
    4. Bronia
  4. “From now on, we will have to look after ourselves.”
    1. Ruth
    2. Edek
    3. Jan
    4. Joseph
  5. “I’m not a little girl, I’ll be eighteen next week.”
    1. Ruth
    2. Bronia
    3. Mrs Krause
    4. Eva
  6. “That’s a nice welcome, isn’t it?”
    1. Ruth
    2. Jan
    3. Edek
    4. Ivan
  7. “Switzerland is still a long way away. We must go on.”
    1. Ruth
    2. Jan
    3. Joseph
    4. Edek
  8. “You stopped the train and were going to steal food from it.”
    1. Captain Greenwood
    2. the farmer
    3. Jan
    4. the Burgomaster
  9. “All Polish and Ukrainian refugees must be sent home by tomorrow.”
    1. Kurt Wolff
    2. Frau Wolff
    3. the Burgomaster
    4. Captain Greenwood
  10. “Mother was sitting with you when you were asleep. She went away before you woke up.”
    1. Jan
    2. Ruth
    3. Edek
    4. Joseph

Vocabulary

Choose the best answer.
  1. a room at the top of the house, under the roof
    1. kitchen
    2. cellar
    3. ruin
    4. attic
  2. a room under the ground in a house
    1. cellar
    2. attic
    3. rapids
    4. study
  3. part of the river where the water moves very fast
    1. zone
    2. rapids
    3. elastic
    4. stream
  4. to fall down suddenly because you are ill or weak
    1. faint
    2. silly
    3. trip
    4. grow up
  5. to send out air from the mouth and throat in a noisy way
    1. faint
    2. cough
    3. ruin
    4. sneeze
  6. not sensible; stupid
    1. playful
    2. refugee
    3. elastic
    4. silly
  7. a place for people to live for a short time
    1. cellar
    2. camp
    3. attic
    4. house
  8. a kind of string that gets longer as you pull it
    1. camp
    2. nail
    3. elastic
    4. rope
  9. to take care of someone or something
    1. grow up
    2. look after
    3. bring up
    4. cough
  10. a building that is almost destroyed and is falling down
    1. ruin
    2. cellar
    3. attic
    4. camp

Plot

Choose the best answer.
  1. During his first winter in prison Joseph _____.
    1. tried to escape many times
    2. escaped with other prisoners
    3. wanted to stay there
    4. was too ill to escape
  2. It took Joseph _____ weeks to walk home to Warsaw.
    1. four and a half
    2. three
    3. three and a half
    4. five and a half
  3. Joseph found the silver sword in _____.
    1. his old school
    2. the ruins of his old house
    3. the ruins of the church
    4. his kitchen
  4. The children escaped from their house by _____.
    1. running out of the front door
    2. running out of the back door
    3. moving from roof to roof
    4. sitting on the roof
  5. The children decided to go to _____ to find their mother and father.
    1. Switzerland
    2. Poland
    3. Germany
    4. Russia
  6. Edek walked more slowly and his _____ was no better.
    1. foot
    2. cough
    3. leg
    4. head
  7. Jan and Edek had to go to court for _____.
    1. stealing bread
    2. escaping from prison
    3. stopping a train
    4. selling butter
  8. Jan wanted to stay with Frau Wolff because _____.
    1. he didn’t have a mother
    2. he didn’t want to go home
    3. he was tired
    4. he loved their dog
  9. The Wolffs gave the children _____ to escape.
    1. a lorry
    2. two bicycles
    3. two canoes
    4. train tickets
  10. At the end of the story the family lived _____.
    1. in an international children’s village
    2. in their old house in Poland
    3. on a farm
    4. in the mountains in Germany

Answer Key: The Silver Sword Comprehension Test

1.

a-4, b-6, c-2, d-10, e-1, f-8, g-7, h-9, i-3, j-5

2.

a-Joseph to Jan, b-Ivan to Ruth, c-Jan to Ruth, d-Ruth to Greenwood, e-Bronia to the Wolffs

3.

(Answers depend on the picture provided)

4.

a-T, b-F, c-F, d-T, e-T, f-F, g-T, h-T, i-F, j-T

5.

(Students’ individual answers)

Answer Key: The Silver Sword Multiple-choice Test

Setting

1-d, 2-c, 3-c, 4-c, 5-a, 6-a, 7-a, 8-a, 9-b, 10-a

Characters

11-c, 12-b, 13-a, 14-c, 15-a, 16-a, 17-d, 18-c, 19-a, 20-a

Dialogue

21-c, 22-b, 23-c, 24-a, 25-a, 26-d, 27-a, 28-a, 29-c, 30-d

Vocabulary

31-d, 32-a, 33-b, 34-a, 35-b, 36-d, 37-b, 38-c, 39-b, 40-a

Plot

41-d, 42-a, 43-b, 44-c, 45-a, 46-b, 47-b, 48-d, 49-c, 50-a