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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. What book does Gay's counselor give her that she found helpful?
(a) The Courage to Heal.
(b) Dealing with Trauma.
(c) The Feminine Mystique.
(d) Our Bodies, Ourselves.

2. What type of professional did Gay interview for her Reporter-at-Large project in high school?
(a) A carpenter.
(b) A musician.
(c) An engineer.
(d) A doctor.

3. How much did author Roxane Gay weigh at her heaviest?
(a) 250 pounds.
(b) 350 pounds.
(c) 675 pounds.
(d) 577 pounds.

4. Where did Gay enroll in her Creative Writing MA program?
(a) Michigan State University.
(b) Brown University.
(c) Yale University.
(d) University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

5. Gay says her lost years began with a specific thing. What was it?
(a) Drugs.
(b) Prostitution.
(c) The Internet.
(d) Financial crisis.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Gay's cultural background?

2. Which of these author does Gay say she liked as a child?

3. What did Gay buy for herself on her twenty-first birthday?

4. At her heaviest, which medical category did Gay fit into?

5. What was Gay's first job after finishing her MA in Creative Writing?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Gay referring to when she says her life was split in two, “the before and the after" (14)?

2. What was the most important thing that Mr. McGuinn did for Gay?

3. What activity did Gay enjoy in high school that helped her forget her pain?

4. What do you think Roxane Gay means by the phrase “The story of my body is not a story of triumph” (4)?

5. How does Gay describe her relationship with her family as a young child?

6. What relationship did Gay have with the boy who raped her?

7. What are some of the reasons Gay gives for not telling anyone about her rape?

8. How did Gay’s parents react to her weight gain when she came home for Thanksgiving her first year in boarding school?

9. Why did Gay like the idea of going to boarding school when she was 13?

10. What does Gay mean when she says her body is a cage?

(see the answer keys)

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