View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did the author choose not to tell his parents that he had been arrested?

2. Who did the author credit with giving him and his friends permission to chant Hitler's name?

3. What is a "cheese boy" in the vernacular of Alexandra, South Africa?

4. What was the "pencil test" that the government administered to some colored people in South Africa?

5. Which pop culture character did the author use as inspiration for putting together his outfit for the matric dance?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the author feel regret regarding his friend Zaheera?

2. What attribute of the author's aided him in his business fetching lunch for people but also prevented his romantic success?

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

4. What difference does the author see between German education around the Holocaust and South African education around apartheid?

5. How was the author able to pose as an American rapper for the talent show in Hammanskraal?

6. 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?

7. How multilingual is South Africa?

8. What happened to the Khoisan tribe after Europeans colonized South Africa?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Police brutality is one the many forms of violence that are depicted in the collection "Born a Crime." Write an essay analyzing the author's rhetoric and attitudes concerning police brutality and how it relates to other forms of violence depicted in the book.

Essay Topic 2

In several passages within the collection "Born a Crime," Trevor Noah describes the role that American media played in his life growing up. Write an essay analyzing the author's use of allusions to American media and what they reveal about the author's perspective towards the events of his life.

Essay Topic 3

According to the collection "Born a Crime," Trevor Noah and his mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, loved each other deeply, yet argued frequently. Write an essay analyzing the author's descriptions and rhetoric surrounding disagreements between himself and his mother, explaining how the author uses conflict as a device to reveal their emotional bond.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 810 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample