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

Short Answer Questions

1. How old was Christine Mann Darden when she started the second grade?

2. What Supreme Court announcement did Katherine Goble Johnson discuss with her male coworkers?

3. Why did Langley employees hold meetings and social gatherings in their own Activities Building in the 1950s?

4. What branch of the military did Katherine Goble Johnson's second husband serve in?

5. How did Katherine Goble Johnson gain access to the editorial meetings?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did NASA move the space program to Houston?

2. What was Mary Jackson's reaction the first time she walked into Hampton High School to take engineering classes?

3. How did the governor of Virginia respond to the Brown v. Board of Education ruling and what was the result?

4. What happened at Moton High School that drew them into the Brown v. Board of Education case?

5. In the 1950s, what made Dorothy Vaughan believe that the nature of the computers' jobs would be changing?

6. How did the disbanding of West Area Computing affect Dorothy Vaughan?

7. Why did the talk that Mary Jackson and Emma Jean gave to a group of girls have such a great impact on the girls?

8. Why was there confusion about which room to place Katherine Goble Johnson's mother in when she was in the hospital?

9. What did Americans fear when Russia launched Sputnik?

10. Why was the U.S. Army called to a school in Little Rock, Arkansas?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shetterly indicates that Langley was something of a social experiment in terms of integration. Write an essay describing the gradual integration of black employees into the general workforce of Langley. How did the work of the black women computers help to integrate Langley? What part did the attitudes of progressive white employees play in the integration of Langley? What changes in the outside world impacted integration at Langley?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay explaining why Shetterly includes a discussion of the original Star Trek television series. What was important about the series? How did it relate to the civil rights movement? How did the series relate to the work being done at Langley?

Essay Topic 3

Mary Jackson’s humanitarian work outside of Langley informed the direction of her career. Write an essay describing the work that Mary did outside and inside of Langley and how the two were interconnected. Why did Mary make the move to Human Resources and how did her humanitarian work influence the work she did in that department?

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This section contains 963 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample