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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 four things does the speaker in "Necessity" say he must do (in the beginning of the poem)?
(a) Wake up, shower, get dressed, and go to work.
(b) Come home, drink, eat, and go to sleep.
(c) Mow the lawn, get the mail, fix the porch, and pain the house.
(d) Eat, drink, stay black, and die.

2. What is the little boy dreaming of in "To Be Somebody"?
(a) Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves.
(b) George Foreman's boxing gloves.
(c) Mike Tyson's boxing gloves.
(d) Joe Louis's boxing gloves.

3. What does the speaker in "Porter" have to say all the time?
(a) "No, ma'am."
(b) "Thank you, ma'am."
(c) "Thank you, sir."
(d) "Yes, sir."

4. What kind of diploma does the character in "Graduation" get?
(a) One from a cooking school.
(b) One saying she is now fluent in Spanish.
(c) One from a typing school.
(d) One saying she is now fluent in German.

5. What does the speaker claim is such a bore in "Ennui"?
(a) Being poor.
(b) Stores.
(c) Snores.
(d) Chores.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is the speaker fired from his job in "Fired"?

2. What does the speaker say life is as fine as in "Life Is Fine"?

3. What does the speaker in "Misery" wish to hear?

4. What question does the Klan ask the speaker in "Ku Klux"?

5. What does the speaker in "Down and Out" want from her lover?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are men portrayed in the poems in "Lament Over Love"?

2. How do the poems in "Life Is Fine" treat life's trials and tribulations?

3. Why do some of the women in the "Lament Over Love" section claim to still participate in bad relationships with men?

4. What observation does the speaker make about the people riding the subway in "Subway Rush Hour"?

5. How does Madam prefer to handle her suitors?

6. What is the history of the word "mulatto," as evidenced in the poem of the same name?

7. What comparison is made in "Me and the Mule"?

8. What is the reader left to assume about how Madam makes money in the poems about her?

9. What major themes are present in the poems included in "Montage of a Dream Deferred"?

10. What is the commonality between all of the poems in "Lament Over Love"?

(see the answer keys)

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