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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the name of the girl who sits behind the protagonist in the school room in Chapter 1?
(a) Sarah Anne.
(b) Maria.
(c) Michelle.
(d) Mary Catherine.

2. Who is the performer who invented the persona of Hennessy Youngman?
(a) Chris Marker.
(b) Zora Neale Hurston.
(c) Glenn Ligon.
(d) Jayson Musson.

3. Why does the woman at the cafe tell the author her son was not accepted at the college of her choice in Chapter 1?
(a) Because of his lack of ambition.
(b) Because of affirmative action.
(c) Because of his lack of extracurricular activities.
(d) Because of his failing grades.

4. How old does the author describe the school girl in Chapter 1?
(a) 12.
(b) 16.
(c) 6.
(d) 9.

5. In Chapter 1, the author begins with the statement, "When you are alone and too tired even to turn on any of your devices, you let yourself linger in" what?
(a) "A desperation that you cannot name."
(b) "A past stacked among your pillows."
(c) "A white cloud of rain."
(d) "Your memory, vessel of your feelings."

6. Whom did Serena Williams play in her semifinal matchup in the 2004 Women's U.S. Open?
(a) Venus Williams.
(b) Mariana Alves.
(c) Jennifer Capriati.
(d) Glenn Ligon.

7. The author says in Chapter 4 that "truth be told, you could no more control those sighs than" what?
(a) "You could control your own mind."
(b) "The oppression of my people."
(c) "That which brings the sighs about."
(d) "The lies of history."

8. Where does the author describe being when she confronts a man for calling a group of teenagers "niggers" in Chapter 1?
(a) Burger King.
(b) Starbucks.
(c) Subway.
(d) McDonald's.

9. What phrase is repeated in the first of the prints displayed in Chapter 3?
(a) "Get you to Heaven."
(b) "I do not always feel colored."
(c) "Your memory, vessel of your feelings."
(d) "A past stacked among your pillows."

10. The author claims in Chapter 3 that "Language that feels hurtful is intended to exploit all the ways that you are" what?
(a) "Enraged."
(b) "Alive."
(c) "Present."
(d) "Oppressed."

11. What women's basketball team was insulted by the commentary of a radio host in 2007 during a discussion of the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship?
(a) The Princeton University women's basketball team.
(b) The Harvard University women's basketball team.
(c) The Yale University women's basketball team.
(d) The Rutgers University women's basketball team.

12. What does the "woman with multiple degrees" say she didn't know black women could get, in Chapter 3?
(a) Jobs.
(b) Tuberculosis.
(c) The flu.
(d) Cancer.

13. Where is the school described as being located in Chapter 1?
(a) On Jackson Street.
(b) On Steinway Street.
(c) On Broadway.
(d) On White Plains Road.

14. The author concludes Chapter 3 by saying that what "shouldn't be an ambition"?
(a) "Reexamining history."
(b) "Justice."
(c) "Just getting along."
(d) "New paths to progress."

15. What phrase is repeated in the second of the prints that is displayed in Chapter 3?
(a) "A past stacked among your pillows."
(b) "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background."
(c) "The meaning of life."
(d) "Your memory, vessel of your feelings."

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author claim "isn't a cure for feeling, it is a clean displacement of effort, will, and disappointment" in Chapter 4?

2. What does the word "fabricate" mean in Chapter 4?

3. Whom does the author cite with the quote in Chapter 2, "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background"?

4. What does the girl behind the school girl ask her to do when they are taking exams in Chapter 1?

5. The author describes hearing two men outside a conference room in Chapter 3, when one says to the other that "being around black people is like" what?

(see the answer keys)

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