Song for a Whale

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

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Iris feel compassion for Blue 55?

A) Like the whale, she was born of parents from two worlds—one Deaf, one hearing.

B) She knows what it is like to be surrounded by people who do not understand her.

C) She understands Blue 55’s lack of effective communication with Mara.

D) She does not want the whale to be alone in the ocean.

2. How do people who are Deaf rhyme?

A) Through repetitive sounds

B) Through similar vibrations

C) Through repeated frequencies

D) Through repetitive hand signals

3. Why does Iris feel some resentment toward her father?

A) He never learned to effectively communicate using sign language.

B) He does not realize the importance of Blue 55.

C) Her father never learned to communicate with her grandparents.

D) He lacks perspective in understanding her.

4. Which best describes how Iris feels in her hearing school?

A) Inspired

B) Hopeful

C) Isolated

D) Desperate

5. Why might Wendell feel more belonging and connection than Iris?

A) His family is fluent in sign language, and he attends a Deaf school.

B) He is able to communicate verbally, and Iris is not.

C) He can hear and can communicate with both worlds.

D) He is better at communicating in sign language because his parents are Deaf.

6. Which of the following best illustrates the novel’s theme of The Gap Between the Deaf and Hearing Worlds?