View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did August, Sylvia, and Angela respond to Gigi's rape?
(a) August, Sylvia, and Angela made a plan to run away with Gigi.
(b) August, Sylvia, and Angela told Gigi that she could stay at Sylvia's house to get away from him.
(c) August, Sylvia, and Angela promised to find the man and kill him.
(d) August, Sylvia, and Angela insisted that Gigi immediately tell her mother.

2. Toward the end of Chapter 7, what did August want to say to her mother about trusting women?
(a) "You were right, Mama. These girls were not to be trusted. I do need to keep them at arms' length" (76).
(b) "Mama, these girls are beautiful. Why did you lie to me" (78)?
(c) "You were wrong, Mama. Look at us hugging. Look at us laughing. Look how we begin and end each other" (75).
(d) "Mama, you are stupid for leaving us and forcing me to trust only my friends to listen to me" (75).

3. Who was portrayed as "starving" at the start of Chapter 6?
(a) The minorities in Brooklyn.
(b) The children of Biafra.
(c) The drug addicts in Chicago.
(d) The refugees of Libya.

4. What does August say saved her brother from feeling "halfway whole" (3)?
(a) Brooklyn.
(b) Faith.
(c) Friendship.
(d) Education.

5. After August's father brought home a radio, how did August say she would have responded if asked, "Are you lonely?" (47).
(a) August revealed that she would answer that she was lonely, but had no way to cure it.
(b) August said that her mother's absence made her so incredibly lonely.
(c) August said that this new radio only reminded her of how lonely her life was.
(d) August confessed that she would reply that she was not lonely, because her brother was with her.

Short Answer Questions

1. What magazine reminded August that her family was not as poor as others?

2. Who originally owned the land where Augusts's family lived in Tennessee?

3. Where did August's mother's brother, Clyde, go to college? (51).

4. What did the August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi decide to do to protect Gigi after she was sexually assaulted?

5. What did the girls say to boys who called August, Sylvia, Gigi, and Angela's names in Chapter 7?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did August and her friends think of one another before they met?

2. What did August think about Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi when she first saw them?

3. What is the significance of the quote that opens the novel?

4. In what ways did August and her friends protect themselves from the streets when they were adolescents?

5. What led to August's father granting August and her brother more freedom after they had moved to Brooklyn?

6. What did Gigi want to be when she grew up? Why?

7. From what perspective and tense is the story related? How is the novel framed?

8. What is the Nation of Islam? How does it factor into the novel?

9. Who was Miss Dora and how is she described in the narrative?

10. What does the jar of ashes represent in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,019 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample