Gathering Blue

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What does the careful control of color and art demonstrate that the Council fears?

A) Education and truth

B) Joy and love

C) Diversity and complexity

D) Disorder and chaos

2. Which are the main mechanisms for maintaining power in Kira’s community?

A) Alliances and negotiation

B) Bribery and guilt

C) Propaganda and lies

D) Violence and fear

3. Which of the novel’s themes is most clearly supported by the scarcity in the village combined with its treatment of people who are viewed as weak and its rigid routines and conformity?

A) Brutality and corruption are often a part of maintaining power.

B) Differences and diversity are a source of strength.

C) Artists have the power to guide people to a better future.

D) Fear is often used to manipulate people into obedience.

4. Which character’s situation does Kira worry might become her own situation?

A) Thomas’s

B) Jo’s

C) Annabella’s

D) Matt’s

5. Which of the novel’s themes is most clearly supported by the beasts and Vandara’s power in the village?

A) Brutality and corruption are often a part of maintaining power.

B) Differences and diversity are a source of strength.

C) Artists have the power to guide people to a better future.

D) Fear is often used to manipulate people into obedience.

6. What is implied by Kira’s process of learning to read?

A) Literacy is not considered to be as useful in her society as it is in our own society.

B) Thomas is deliberately trying to teach Kira to read, but he cannot openly acknowledge this.

C) Kira cannot help learning certain things, even if her society does not want her to.

D) Both men and women can be equally gifted in all of the different fields of human endeavors.

7. Which of the novel’s themes is most clearly supported by Jamison’s character and the actions of the Council?

A) Brutality and corruption are often a part of maintaining power.

B) Differences and diversity are a source of strength.

C) Artists have the power to guide people to a better future.

D) Fear is often used to manipulate people into obedience.

8. Which is most clearly a symbol of Kira’s connection to her family?

A) The embroidered scrap of cloth

B) The color blue

C) Her pendant

D) Kira’s relationship with Matt

9. Which of the novel’s themes is most clearly supported by Christopher and the village he has been living in?

A) Brutality and corruption are often a part of maintaining power.

B) Differences and diversity are a source of strength.

C) Artists have the power to guide people to a better future.

D) Fear is often used to manipulate people into obedience.

10. What does the timing of Annabella’s death imply?

A) She was killed for encouraging Kira to rebel against the Council.

B) She was killed because of what she knows about the beasts.

C) She was killed because the Council knows Kira can now dye threads without her.

D) She was killed for refusing to live inside the village and follow its rules.

11. What is implied by the fates of Kira, Thomas, and Jo’s parents?

A) The Council is willing to kill to gain control of young artists.

B) The beasts are more dangerous than people realize.

C) Parents in this community are not very nurturing.

D) The community believes that artists are a burden.

12. Which character is the best at hiding their true intentions?

A) Vandara

B) Thomas

C) Matt

D) Jamison

13. What does Katrina’s treatment of Kira foreshadow?

A) Kira’s treatment of Annabella

B) Kira’s treatment of Christopher

C) Kira’s treatment of Jo

D) Kira’s treatment of Jamison

14. What difference between Kira and Thomas makes Kira a more likely leader for efforts to change their society?

A) Kira knows what it is like to suffer as an outsider.

B) Kira’s gender means she is naturally a more compassionate person.

C) Kira’s artistic ability means she is a more creative thinker.

D) Kira’s ability to see into the future means she is able to avoid danger.

15. Katrina and Matt’s attitudes toward Kira’s disability most sharply contrast with whose attitude?

A) Thomas’s

B) Christopher’s

C) Jamison’s

D) Vandara’s

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What does the similarity between Kira and Branch indicate about Matt’s character?

2. What is ironic about the difference between the Council’s beliefs about the purpose of Kira’s art and Kira’s own beliefs about the purpose of her art?