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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What do the brown girls and boys NOT notice as they cross through Prospect Park?
(a) More police officers patrolling the streets.
(b) The grass grows thick with rows of flowers.
(c) White women out jogging.
(d) No trash.

2. When the girls meet the white boys’ parents, they suddenly become what?
(a) Second class citizens.
(b) A threat to the white family’s security.
(c) A celebrity.
(d) Ambassadors of Third World Nations.

3. In Night, how do the brown girls pay for expensive clothes?
(a) They do not pay for their clothes, as they receive them as gifts, or they steal them.
(b) Stealing from their parents’ pocketbooks and wallets.
(c) Selling their bodies.
(d) Babysitting and tutoring money.

4. Why do the girls feel the urge to leave the large family parties?
(a) To play in the backyard.
(b) They are bored.
(c) They are overheated.
(d) For a breath of fresh air.

5. When brown boys notice the girls’ bodies, what do the girls mistakenly think?
(a) They need no other skills if they have beauty.
(b) Their beauty is their power.
(c) The boys love them.
(d) They have met their future husbands.

6. In Part One, Brown, the narrator describes the various shades of brown of her and other brown girls. What is NOT a way she describes her and her friends’ skin tones?
(a) Peanut butter.
(b) Sand at Rockaway Beach.
(c) Ash.
(d) 7-eleven root beer.

7. When the narrator and her friends play dress-up in a store with beautiful clothes, what does a store clerk think is happening?
(a) They are doing drugs.
(b) They are adding graffiti to the merchandise.
(c) They are trying on gowns for prom.
(d) They are trying to steal.

8. The narrator tells of the training bras the girls wear. From whom did they learn about bras?
(a) Magazines and advertisements.
(b) Older friends.
(c) Mothers and sisters.
(d) Soap operas.

9. What two groups does the narrator say eats the same lunch?
(a) The students at her school and inmates in prisons.
(b) The students at her school and those in homeless shelters.
(c) The students at her school and the President of the United States.
(d) The students and teachers at her school.

10. What does the narrator say the other boys are?
(a) All-American boys.
(b) Wanna-bees.
(c) Practically celebrities.
(d) Absolute perfection.

11. What do the girls mostly do at the mall?
(a) Try out perfumes.
(b) Chase each other around.
(c) Window shop.
(d) Eat junk food.

12. What does a white woman say when she sees the brown boy and girl?
(a) Thank God they stick to their own kind.
(b) I hope they won't rob me.
(c) Who do they think they are?
(d) Why won't they stay on their own side of the park?

13. Why do the family and friends who come to stay with the girls and their families leave for other cities?
(a) They go to stay with other family members.
(b) For work.
(c) They tire of living in cramped conditions in Queens.
(d) To see more of America.

14. In Part One, Lunchroom, who is cursing at Trish?
(a) Marco Varisco.
(b) Joseph Justin O’Brien.
(c) John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt.
(d) Joey Gemelli.

15. In Part One, Optical Illusions, what do the girls do with the stolen makeup?
(a) They sell it on the street to earn extra cash.
(b) They give it to their mothers as a birthday gift.
(c) They cover their faces in it to see what they would look like if they had white skin.
(d) They follow a makeup tutorial to try to look like their favorite celebrities.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is NOT one of the Commandments described in Our Mothers’ Commandments?

2. In Part One, Last Day, what is the reason the narrator gives for all the rigorous testing and high school applications?

3. Often the brown mothers ask if the girls are listening, as they seem to be ignoring their mothers. What are the girls thinking but not saying?

4. In Part 2, Western Epistemology, the narrator speaks of sitting in high school classrooms with what?

5. What do the girls end up throwing at the boys’ head who cursed at Trish?

(see the answer keys)

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