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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapters 1-3.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator say he has never been good at because his “ideas of interpretation were always too strongly individual”?
(a) Composing music.
(b) Interpreting the Bible.
(c) Running a business.
(d) An accompanist.

2. With what does the narrator describe having been allowed to play by the tall man with the small, dark moustache in Chapter 1?
(a) A puppy.
(b) A 100-year-old sword.
(c) A croquet set.
(d) A gold pocket watch.

3. The narrator states in Chapter 2 that “a true artist can no more play upon the piano or violin without putting his whole body in accord with the emotions he is striving to express than a swallow can” do what?
(a) “Eat without being vulnerable.”
(b) “Sing without melody.”
(c) “Sing without being loud.”
(d) “Fly without being graceful.”

4. The narrator’s mother supported herself and her son by what means, according to the narrator in Chapter 1?
(a) Tutoring students.
(b) Sewing.
(c) Growing vegetables.
(d) Giving violin lessons.

5. The narrator states in Chapter 2 of his mother that he did not remember “ever having seen her with a book in her hand, with the exception of” what?
(a) The Episcopal Prayer-book.
(b) The Torah.
(c) The Koran.
(d) The Bible.

Short Answer Questions

1. It is the narrator’s duty to bring what to the tall man with the small, dark moustache when he visits in Chapter 1?

2. According to the narrator in Chapter 2, the two immediate results of his “forced loneliness” were finding company in books and greater pleasure in what?

3. The narrator states in Chapter 2, “And this is the dwarfing, warping, distorting influence which operates upon each colored man in the United States. He is forced to take his outlook on all things, not from the viewpoint of a citizen, or a man, nor even a human being, but from the viewpoint of” what?

4. By what age could the narrator play by ear all of the hymns and songs his mother knew?

5. Who does the narrator say stood at the head of his list of heroes for a long time in Chapter 2?

(see the answer key)

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