Plot
Chapter 1 opens at a huge exhibition celebrating America’s hundredth birthday. In what city does it take place?
Philadelphia, PA
A snack normally costs $2. The convention vendor charges $40. Which vocabulary word describes that unreasonable price?
Exorbitant
His telephone amazes people, but its success leaves him fighting lawsuits and struggling to find time for new ideas.
Alexander Graham Bell. Chapters 1 and 6.
“We want Garfield!” What unexpected idea is someone in the convention crowd proposing?
Garfield nominate himself for president.
This layered pasta dish would probably become the official White House dinner under President Garfield the Cat.
Lasagna
Before becoming a scholar or politician, teenage Garfield leaves home to work on this kind of waterway.
A Canal
Without being invited, a visitor takes over the meeting and starts ordering everyone around. His behavior is this.
Presumptuous
This British surgeon wants American doctors to take germs and infection prevention seriously.
Joseph Lister. Chapter 1.
Who describes himself as “God’s minute man”?
Charles Guiteau.
President Garfield would probably try to abolish this day of the week.
Monday
Garfield arrives at the Republican convention intending to nominate this man—not himself.
John Sherman
Your job depends on keeping one unreliable customer happy. Your position is this: unstable and easily lost.
Precarious
This man joins the Oneida Community and believes he deserves special treatment as someone chosen by God.
Charles Guiteau. Prologue and Chapter 4.
Garfield says, “This honor comes to me unsought.” What does unsought tell us about his nomination?
He did not seek or pursue it.
This loveable but mute dog might have some concerns about a Garfield administration.
Odie
Republicans distribute a pamphlet listing Hancock’s political achievements. What makes it an insult?
Its pages are blank.
A newspaper attack is full of bitter insults and vicious criticism. Which word describes its tone?
Vitriolic
Beyond supporting Grant, what political system gives Conkling power—and makes him resist reform?
The spoils/patronage system: distributing government jobs to loyal supporters. Chapter 3.
After Garfield’s speech compares the convention to a stormy sea, Conkling says he feels “seasick.” What is he doing with that response?
Mocking Garfield’s ocean comparison / making a sarcastic jab at the speech.
This human feeds Garfield and would presumably be nominated Secretary of Opening Cans.
Jon Arbuckle
Western Union has money, wires, and competing inventors. Name the TWO things that give Bell a strong legal case against it.
Evidence that he developed the first working telephone, and his patent.
American doctors resist Lister’s antisepsis. What does it prevent, and how?
Infection, by destroying germs.
Bell leaves his telephone company. Why doesn’t that solve the problem worrying Mabel?
His intense drive to work continues; company demands aren’t the only cause. Chapter 6.
“It can speak, but it won’t!” A lawyer says this during a challenge to Bell’s invention. What has gone wrong?
His client’s supposed telephone won’t work during the courtroom demonstration.
This cartoonist created "Garfield."
Jim Davis