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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What photographs did the mother of the author's son take while she was away?
(a) Street sleepers.
(b) Famous statues.
(c) Pottery.
(d) Doors.

2. What question does the author pose about assaulting an officer of the law?
(a) Should assaulting an officer be a capital offense?
(b) Should assault be grounds for a broken body?
(c) When violence begets violence, when does the circle end?
(d) Should offenders of assault be punished or rehabilitated?

3. What hope does the author have for his son?
(a) That he become a conscious citizen of this "terrible and beautiful world."
(b) That he learns to be "thrice as good."
(c) That he "learn to live in peace with others."
(d) That he "descend into his own Dream."

4. Which protest sign did the author see while in France that reminded him of his blackness?
(a) Trayvon Martin.
(b) Abner Louima.
(c) Jordan Davis.
(d) Prince Jones.

5. What did the dead boy's mother decide to do after the trial in the chapter "The Dream"?
(a) Plead her son's case before the journalists and writers.
(b) Leave the country.
(c) Attack the judge in court.
(d) Shoot the man who murdered her son.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the city of Manhattan try to build over a slave burial site?

2. Why does the author fear the PG County police?

3. How did the author react to his son being pushed off the escalator?

4. Whom was the author interviewing in Chicago?

5. What does the author recall always having, even when times were hard?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Coats, how have the American legal system and the banking industry conspired together to create the illusion known as "The Dream"?

2. How does the author contrast black and white societies?

3. What lesson does the mother of the boy on page 112 (Lucia McBath) try to impart to the author's son?

4. Why are black children told to be "twice as good"?

5. Why is the author's fear of his son seeing him arrested greater than his fear of being arrested?

6. What does the author mean by every country having an "above" and a "below"?

7. What impact does the death of Prince Jones have on the author?

8. What reasons does the author give for the woman feeling validated in pushing his son off the escalator?

9. How, does Coats write, have his eyes been damaged by what he has seen?

10. What is the significance of the author's description of the slave burial plot in southern Manhattan?

(see the answer keys)

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