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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Rodriguez's family, how are men supposed to be?
(a) Tough, aggressive, and bossy.
(b) Gentle, polite, and soft-spoken.
(c) Intelligent, kind, and good at providing for a family.
(d) Ruggedly handsome, strong in character, and responsible.

2. What does Rodriguez tell his mother about talking to strangers?
(a) She needs to learn how to talk to strangers more easily.
(b) Talking to strangers is more difficult in Spanish than English.
(c) Talking to strangers is always difficult.
(d) There are some things so intimate it is easier to say them to strangers.

3. What does Rodriguez's professor ask him about applying for teaching jobs?
(a) If he wants to get a job this year.
(b) If Rodriguez thinks the jobs will find him because he is a minority candidate.
(c) If he is sure he wants to teach college.
(d) If he is willing to teach at a far away school.

4. Why does Rodriguez use the label "minority student"?
(a) To get sympathy from professors.
(b) To get scholarships.
(c) To announce that he is proud of his ethnicity.
(d) To prove that Hispanics can succeed in school.

5. What does Rodriguez's editor say about his idea for a book?
(a) He will upset a lot of people.
(b) It could be a best-seller.
(c) Writing it will be a lonely experience.
(d) It is not an interesting idea.

6. What is Rodriguez's complexion like?
(a) He is light-skinned.
(b) He looks like a white boy.
(c) He is dark-skinned.
(d) He has bad acne.

7. While he writes his book, how does Rodriguez support himself?
(a) He is a college professor.
(b) He does odd jobs.
(c) He works construction.
(d) He tutors students.

8. What example does Rodriguez offer of a program that can help minority students?
(a) His own experience: a strong educational background.
(b) Students he knew in graduate school who went for extra tutoring.
(c) Students who went to college for five years instead of four.
(d) Students who took a remedial reading course.

9. What happens at the swimming pool to make Rodriguez aware of his skin color?
(a) A group of boys makes fun of him.
(b) His mother tells him to cover up.
(c) He realizes everyone else in the pool is light-skinned.
(d) A pretty girl laughs at him.

10. Why does Rodriguez's mother call him "Mr. Secrets"?
(a) Because he lies to his family.
(b) Because he likes to surprise them.
(c) Because he does not talk to his family.
(d) Because he hides things from his family.

11. What new academic field do these minority college students ask for?
(a) Anthropology.
(b) Ethnography.
(c) Ethnic studies.
(d) Third world studies.

12. Because of his skin color, what did Rodriguez's parents worry about?
(a) That he would get involved with a gang.
(b) That he would take a hard labor job.
(c) That he would have a harder time in school.
(d) That people would discriminate against him.

13. According to Rodriguez, what do minority students need to succeed in college?
(a) A support system of other minority students.
(b) Extra tutoring.
(c) Basic skills and an educational background that prepares them for college.
(d) Supportive professors and family members.

14. How does Rodriguez describe the 1960s student?
(a) Idealistic and admirable.
(b) A troublemaker.
(c) Prone to protesting, but with good intentions.
(d) Too politically liberal.

15. Why does Rodriguez's mother not understand his explanation about psychiatry?
(a) Because she has a cultural attitude about writers.
(b) Because he does not tell her the truth.
(c) Because he is explaining in English.
(d) Because she has a cultural attitude about private life and public life.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Rodriguez think about the old religious traditions of his childhood?

2. How does Rodriguez say that the white students react to affirmative action?

3. What changes Rodriguez's ideas about his complexion?

4. What is the Third World Student Movement?

5. What does Rodriguez hope writing the book will do?

(see the answer keys)

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