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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 purported purpose of art does Smith say is usually overstated in her essay “Something to Do”?
(a) Its aesthetic value.
(b) Offer financial security to the artist.
(c) Its fundraising abilities.
(d) Its political efficacy.

2. What does Smith say we had before the pandemic instead of death?
(a) Universal healthcare.
(b) Casualties and victims.
(c) The flu.
(d) Immortality.

3. What is one of the social issues Smith said that pandemic forced many to have to face in her essay “Something to Do”?
(a) Unloving parents.
(b) Lack of sick leave.
(c) Low minimum wage.
(d) Bad marriages.

4. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that the poorer countries Trump condemned did not have the foresight to be what?
(a) Iceland.
(b) Europe.
(c) America.
(d) Sweden.

5. Though the “bubble” of privilege can be penetrated, what bubble does Smith say cannot be penetrated?
(a) Inadequate education.
(b) Suffering.
(c) Isolation.
(d) Self-hate.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the title of the third story in Zadie Smith’s collection, Intimations?

2. What does Smith say “demanded a new dawn” (11)?

3. Who did people “thank God for” (16) after the pandemic when, Smith says, they were not seen as worthy of a $15/ hour minimum wage prior to the pandemic?

4. What date was the speech Smith references at the start of “The American Exception”?

5. What does Smith say writers often write about at some point in their careers at the start of “Something to Do”?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the meme Smith references in “Suffering Like Mel Gibson.”

2. Why does Smith say it was hard for Americans to fathom a plague?

3. What does Smith say is the only relief people in lockdown have from one another?

4. What does Smith say she does not need “a Freudian” to tell her regarding herself and the two other women her age staring at the tulips in Jefferson Market Garden?

5. What does Smith say that artists learned in regards to privacy and time at the start of “Suffering Like Mel Gibson”?

6. What does Smith compare the way in which she packs her free time to at the start of “Peonies’?

7. How do “defenders of art typically justify its existence” (21) according to Smith?

8. How does Smith describe the space typically occupied by artists?

9. What are some of the various types of loneliness Smith describes people felt at the start of the lockdown in “Suffering Like Mel Gibson”?

10. What does Smith say artists of all kinds are asked at some point in their lives?

(see the answer keys)

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