View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In “Suffering Like Mel Gibson” Smith discusses an article she read about a 17-year-old who committed suicide during the pandemic for what reason?

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

3. What image of “bored children” at home does Smith use in “The American Exception”?

4. What song does Smith reflect on how the lyrics would change if it were written for a man?

5. What does Smith say has “rarely been random” in America in her essay “The American Exception”?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Smith say the country had begun to learn or discuss in regards to privilege prior to the virus?

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

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

4. What does Smith say about love in “Something to Do”?

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

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

7. Describe the article Smith references in “Suffering Like Mel Gibson” about a 17-year-old during lockdown.

8. 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?

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

10. In “The American Exception” Smith says that Americans attack death as what?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing Cy’s character in “A Hovering Young Man.” What does he represent and how does the pandemic affect Cy? What is Smith’s tone in regards to the effect the pandemic has on people like Cy?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing the title of Smith’s essay “A Provocation in the Park.” In what ways does this title impact your reading of the essay? In what ways does this title reflect the theme or mood of the story? Use direct examples from the text.

Essay Topic 3

In the final line of Intimations, Smith says that her “physical and moral cowardice have never really been tested, until now” (97). Write an essay exploring that line and including examples of this from the stories in Intimations.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 724 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample