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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through “Something To Do” .

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which president’s speech does Smith cite at the start of “The American Exception”?
(a) Joe Biden.
(b) Bill Clinton.
(c) Barack Obama.
(d) Donald Trump.

2. Despite a pandemic’s ability to discriminate, says Smith, the structure of American hierarchy meant that which groups experience higher death rates?
(a) Asians and Latinos.
(b) Whites and Asians.
(c) Blacks and Latinos.
(d) Blacks and whites.

3. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that nobody in 1945 wanted to go back to 1939 unless it was to do what?
(a) Change the course of history.
(b) Resurrect the dead.
(c) Vote for a different leader.
(d) Be younger.

4. What does Smith say “demanded a new dawn” (11)?
(a) Women.
(b) Disaster.
(c) Americans.
(d) Night.

5. What is the title of the second essay in Zadie’s Smith’s collection, Intimations?
(a) Intimations.
(b) Peonies.
(c) The American Exception.
(d) Screengrabs.

Short Answer Questions

1. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that the poorer countries Trump condemned did not have the foresight to be what?

2. What does Smith say we had before the pandemic instead of death?

3. What does Trump say we did not have prior to the pandemic, which Smith agrees?

4. What “obsession” (6) does Smith liken to her resistance to nature as a youth, an obsessions she says many writers share?

5. “Truly laboring people,” Smith says, have to adhere to this, to which an artist does not have to adhere?

(see the answer key)

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