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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. How did poverty make it harder for the author to dress attractively during grade 9?
(a) The school had special, unsightly uniforms for children who could not afford their own.
(b) His mother bought him extra-baggy clothing so he would not outgrow it too quickly.
(c) He had plenty of money but he did not want to make his poorer classmates jealous so he wore cheap clothes to make them feel better.
(d) At the time, you needed to pay for a special license to wear nice clothes in South Africa.

2. What happened before the author could ask Zaheera out?
(a) She was captured by Zulu extremists.
(b) She moved to America.
(c) The author was sentenced to work in the salt mines.
(d) She married her boyfriend, Gary.

3. What was the "pencil test" that the government administered to some colored people in South Africa?
(a) A written test that, if passed, qualified a colored person to be reclassified as white.
(b) A literacy test that colored people had to pass in order to vote in South African elections.
(c) A measurement of a worker's strength determined by how large a bundle of pencils they could break with their bare hands.
(d) A test to determine whiteness, based on whether a pencil would stay in place if stuck in one's hair.

4. What was the racial composition of Highlands North?
(a) Highlands North was almost entirely white.
(b) Highlands North was almost entirely Indian.
(c) Highlands North was cosmopolitan, with no single majority race.
(d) Highlands North was almost entirely black.

5. Why could the author not ask Maylene out right away for Valentine's Day?
(a) He had to relay the message through her friends first.
(b) He had to learn how to speak her native tongue.
(c) He was afraid of her boyfriend.
(d) He wanted to ask in the form of a poem and had trouble rhyming with "Maylene."

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Zaheera feel about the author?

2. According to the author, what racial group was notorious for having the most dangerous gangsters in South Africa?

3. What convinced the author that it would be best to bide his time before revealing his crush?

4. What does the author suspect of his friend from Alexandra who lost his retail job?

5. For what crime was the author arrested?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the author claim that the "colored people" of modern South Africa are in some ways worse off than the black people of South Africa?

2. How does the author describe his early thoughts about his victims when he starts a life of crime in the story "The Cheese Boys"?

3. What did Patricia tell the security guard to do when he reported the author for shop-lifting at the age of ten?

4. Why was the author late to the dance?

5. How does the author describe the relationship between regular people and criminals in Alexandra?

6. How does the author explain the abundance of South Africans with names for controversial historical figures like "Napoleon," "Mussolini," and "Hitler"?

7. How did Patricia respond when the author tried to tell Abel what happened under the mulberry tree?

8. What niche did the author find at Sandingham high school during lunch time?

9. What was the purpose of the event where the author and his crew got in trouble for chanting Hitler's name?

10. What aspect of Patricia's romantic advice did the author have the most trouble understanding?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 958 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample