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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Morrison skeptical about?
(a) The author of The Words to Say It was actually healed.
(b) The author of The Words to Say It is a real person.
(c) The Words to Say It is an autobiography.
(d) The Words to Say It is a work of fiction.

2. What is assumed about literature much of the time, in Morrison's point of view?
(a) American literature is worthless for black Americans.
(b) American literature is only read by Americans.
(c) American literature is unshaped by black presence.
(d) American literature is unshaped by slavery.

3. When did Morrison read The Words to Say It?
(a) 1990.
(b) 1978.
(c) 1988.
(d) 1983.

4. Where does Morrison claim to apply the knowledge in Playing in the Dark?
(a) The way she argues.
(b) The way she communicates.
(c) The class she teaches.
(d) The way she reads.

5. According to Morrison, what do readers and writers struggle to interpret?
(a) Dialogue.
(b) Character traits like anger.
(c) Excitement and happiness.
(d) Imagined worlds.

6. What does Morrison argue for extending?
(a) The study of American literature.
(b) The study of racism.
(c) The study of racial interactions.
(d) The study of African literature.

7. Morrison says that what item reveals itself differently to each writer?
(a) Notebook.
(b) Book.
(c) Pen.
(d) Paper.

8. According to Cardinal, what does America plan to slaughter?
(a) Mexico.
(b) Iran.
(c) Algeria.
(d) United Kingdom.

9. In the attack on Algeria, what does Cardinal see?
(a) White slaughter of a black mother.
(b) White slaughter of a white mother.
(c) White slaughter of an Indian mother.
(d) Vengeful slaughter of an innocent.

10. What does Morrison teach?
(a) American Literature.
(b) Women's studies.
(c) Racial Studies.
(d) English composition.

11. What is an example of the concept of black figuration?
(a) Africanism in American literature.
(b) Morrison's reading style.
(c) Slavery in American history.
(d) The manifestion of Cardinal's illness.

12. According to Morrison, what do readers and writers fight for?
(a) Defintion and defiance.
(b) Determination and fear.
(c) Individuality and duality.
(d) Meaning and responsibility.

13. Which of the following is true about Africanism around the world?
(a) The US is not unique in its construction of Africanism.
(b) Europe is the only first-world region that does not acknowledge Africanism.
(c) African literature is the only type of literature that has not constructed Africanism.
(d) American literature is the only type of literature that features Africanism.

14. What does Morrison not mention the world as being?
(a) Genderized.
(b) Sexualized.
(c) Racialized.
(d) Liberalized.

15. What book discusses certain kinds of readings that seem inextricable from certain experiences of writing and knowledge?
(a) The Words to Say It.
(b) Possession.
(c) Preludes IV.
(d) Playing in the Dark.

Short Answer Questions

1. What persuaded Morrison to read The Words to Say It?

2. How many years back did the presence of African-Americans in the US begin?

3. Who does the main female character in Sapphira and the Slave Girl demand power over?

4. Which group, according to Morrison, is more likely to claim that racism is neutral?

5. What does Cardinal's first therapy realization concern?

(see the answer keys)

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