The Nurse's Office Comprehension Questions

(Enter answers on the line to left of each question.)

 

            _______   1.  Jerry received a package in the mail.   

                                    (T)rue or (F)alse         

 

            _______   2.   Jerry’s mother worried he’d get________.

                                    a.  AIDS

                        b.  Polio

c.  Impetigo

d.  Pinworms  

                                                           

            _______   3.   The Wicker Park Pool saved Jerry from?

                                    a.  TB

                                    b.  sunburn

                                    c.  influenza

                                    d.  drowning

 

            ________  4.  Brantwoodians avoided the pool.

                                    (T)rue or (F)alse.

 

            ________  5.   Jerry's mother didn't want him swimming in the Wicker Park Pool because:

                                    a. Gangs might do him harm.

                                    b. He'd be run over by a car walking to the   pool.

                                    c. He'd catch a disease.

                                     d. Some kids went to the bathroom in the water. 

 

            ________   6. Why did the nurse tattoo the students?

                                    a. So they could be identified if they were kidnapped.        

                                    b. It was a fad like a school sweat shirt with the mascot logo on it.

                                    c. To identify their blood type for a transfusion if they had an accident.

                                    d. To help them distinguish their right side from their left.

 

            ________  7.   How did Jerry discover his tattoo was flawed?

                                    a. He bruised his side and the nurse told him about it.

                                    b. He used his mom's hand mirror to see it.

                                    c. A friend saw it at the Wicker Park Pool and laughed about it.

                                    d. It started festering and itching causing him to ask his mom to look at it.

 

            ________  8.   What was the purpose of the nurse's hair and scalp exam?

                                    a. To assure students had not violated the hair style codes: no Elvis Presley styles.

                                   b. To send a note home that the student needed a haircut.

                                    c. To suggest the right kind of shampoo for the student's hair.

                                    d. To find evidence of scalp and hair disease or parasites.

 

            _________ 9. What did Jerry compare the tapeworm infection process to?

                                    a. Jules Verne's book, A Journey to the Center of the Earth.

                                    b. The three little bears' eating their mother's porridge.

                                    c. Finding his way out of a haunted house maze.

                        d. Neil Armstrong's Eagle spacecraft landing on the Moon.

 

            ________  10. What did the vagrant do to the turkey?

                                    a. Slipped a drumstick into his pocket.

                                    b. Named it Oscar Meyer.

                                    c. Patted it on its chest.

                                    d. Expectorated on its carcass.

 

            _________ 11. The card that came in the mail said ______.

                                    a. Jerry might have polio.

                                    b. Jerry had won the lottery.

                                    c. Jerry had ring worm.

                                    d. Jerry might have TB.

 

            _________ 12. Jerry decided to investigate what the card said by______.

                                    a. Calling the doctor.

                                    b. Asking the school nurse.

                                    c. Examining volume 16, pg. 8192 of the encyclopedia.

                                    d. Watching Dr. Kildare on television.

 

            _________ 13. What did Jerry NOT think about his fate?

                                    a. No Camp Pokagon this year.

                                    b. No more Wicker Park Pool.

                                    c. He was a “dead boy walking.”

                                    d. He felt sorry for the person who he thought gave him the disease.

 

            _________ 14. What disease or malady  did Jerry most fear?          

                                    a. a  mile long tapeworm.

                                    b. ring worm

                                    c. Tuberculosis

                                    d. pin worms

 

            _________ 15. Jerry began to cry because  _______.

                                    a  He would not be able to have the hair/scalp exam again next year.

                                    b. He'd thought he'd die a lowly Tenderfoot Boy Scout.

                                    c. He'd miss his mom's calf liver dinners on Thursday nights.

                                    d. He'd never be able to experience the tapeworm milk cure.

 

            _________ 16. Who would you rather be in the story?

                                    a. One of the family at the Thanksgiving dinner.

                                    b. The kid whose “spew” Jerry thought he's stepped in at the pool.

                                    c. One of the kids taking the “milk cure.”

                                    d. Jerry

 

            _________  17. Who among those listed below are not Jerry's hero?

                                    a. Flash Gordon

                                    b. The television cowboy hero Hopalong  Cassidy.

                                    c. Frankenstein

                                   d. Dr. Kildare

 

            _________  18. What saying impressed Jerry?

                                    a. “Dead men tell no tales.”

                                    b. “Stupid is as stupid does.”

                                    c. “A coward dies a thousand deaths...”

                                    d. “What you don't know can't hurt you.”

 

            _________  19. Jerry's symptoms improved because ______.

                                    a. There was less pollution in the air.

                                    b. They were imagined, and he stopped being fearful.

                                    c. He was resigned to dying and stopped worrying.

                                    d. He really didn't have TB.

 

            _________ 20. The major anecdotes in The Nurse's Office did NOT include ____.

                                    a. The story of the vagrant at the Thanksgiving dinner.

                                    b. The tapeworm cure being administered to infected children.

                                    c. The nurse's hair/scalp exam being conducted.

                                    d. Experiencing  the Lincoln School tattooing.

                                    e. Receiving the wrong type blood after an automobile accident.

                                    f. A ricocheting BB breaking Jerry’s glasses

 

The Nurse’s Office Vocabulary List

 

            Word                           Synonym

 

  1. paranoia                       fear                                         
  2. inexplicable                 puzzling
  3. desperado                    desperate criminal
  4. perfunctory                 routine
  5. acquiesced                   agreed
  6. vigilance                      alert watchfulness
  7. miniscule                     extremely small                      
  8. syncopated                  irregularly sounded
  9. subcutaneously            under the skin
  10. epidermal                    outer               
  11. prostrate                      to lay flat on the ground
  12. metastasized                spread
  13. prognosis                     forecast of the course of a disease (prediction)
  14. genesis                         origin
  15. derision                       ridicule
  16. maturation                   becoming fully developed
  17. intravenously               in a vein
  18. parasite                        an animal or plant living on or in another animal or    plant
  19. host                             the animal or plant in or on which a parasite lives
  20. torsos                           bodies
  21. serpentined                  snaked, wove (coined word)
  22. malignance                  a deadly thing
  23. trekking                       to travel or migrate
  24. fetish                           obsession  or unnatural desire,  slang hang-up”
  25. nauseating                   sickening
  26. perfunctory                 routine

27.interloper                      intruder

28.expectorant                  spit or other ejected fluid from the mouth

29.facades                         faces or fronts

30.incarcerated                  imprisoned

31.dysentery                     diarrhea

32.hemorrhagic                 bloody

 

Answer Sheet: One Nation Under God

 

1.  _____________  Story: The Nurse’s Office

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Vocabulary Matching Quiz: The Nurse’s Office

 

               Word                                    Synonym

 

1.____ paranoia                 a. irregularly sounded

2.____ inexplicable           b. becoming fully developed

3.____ desperado              c. ridicule

4.____ perfunctory           d. agree

5.____ acquiesce               e.  outer

6.____ vigilance                f.  stretched out flat

7.____ miniscule               g.  spread of a disease

8.____ syncopated            h. one who feeds another

9.____ subcutaneously      i. fear

10.___ epidermal              j. in a vein

11.____prostrate               k. forecast, prediction

12.____metastasize           l.  body

13.____prognosis              m. deadly thing

14.____genesis                  n. alert watchfulness

15.____derision                o. one who lives off  another

16.____maturation            p. puzzling

17.____intravenously        q. snake or weave

18.____parasite                 r. obsession, unnatural desire

19.____host                      s. routine

20.____torso                     t.  sickening

21.____serpentine             u. extremely small

22.____malignance           v. spread

23.____trekking                w. desperate criminal

24.____fetish                    x. origin

25.____nauseating            y. under the skin

26.____perfunctory          z.  spit

27.____routine                  aa. front

28.____interloper              bb. imprison

29.____expectorant          cc. bloody

30.____facade                  dd. intruder

31.____incarcerate            ee. routine

32.____hemorrhagic         ff. travel, migrate