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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does the author describe female segregated restrooms in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) They say "White Women" and "Negro Women."
(b) They say "White Ladies" and "Black Ladies."
(c) They say "White Women" and "Colored Ladies."
(d) They say "White Ladies" and "Colored Women."

2. What kind of athletic career does the author describe pursuing but not succeeding at in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) Prize-fighting.
(b) Basketball.
(c) Football.
(d) Baseball.

3. What author does the narrator describe beginning to read when he began losing his faith in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) Nietzche.
(b) Dostoevski.
(c) Homer.
(d) Kant.

4. What color clothing does the author describe the women wearing at Elijah Muhammad's home in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) Red.
(b) White.
(c) Yellow.
(d) Green.

5. The author writes in "Down at the Cross" that "the social treatment accorded even the most successful Negroes proved that one needed, in order to be free, something more than a bank account. One needed" what?
(a) "A mechanism to provoke change in the hearts of men."
(b) "A backdoor into white society."
(c) "Hope."
(d) "A handle, a lever, a means of inspiring fear."

6. The authors writes in "Down at the Cross," "Yes, it does indeed mean something - something unspeakable - to be born, in a white country, and Anglo-Teutonic, antisexual country, black. You very soon, without knowing it, give up all hope of" what?
(a) "Communication."
(b) "Redemption."
(c) "Inflation."
(d) "Communion."

7. How does the author describe his feelings about "a separate black economy in America"?
(a) "Willfull, and even mischievous nonsense."
(b) "A true possibility if there were enough cooperation."
(c) "A cautionary warning."
(d) "An ideal to attain."

8. How does the author respond when asked by the female pastor, "Whose little boy are you?"
(a) "Allah's."
(b) "David Baldwin's."
(c) "God's."
(d) "Why, yours."

9. Of the girls in Harlem going through adolescence, the author says in "Down at the Cross," "They understood that they must act as God's" what?
(a) "Angels."
(b) "Watchmen."
(c) "Love."
(d) "Decoys."

10. How old was the author when two police officers amused themselves with frisking him, according to the story in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) 10.
(b) 12.
(c) 16.
(d) 19.

11. What does the word "bulwark" mean in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) A defensive wall.
(b) A fencing sword.
(c) A rope attached to a roof.
(d) A chain.

12. What does the word "assuage" from "Down at the Cross" mean?
(a) To placate.
(b) To satisfy.
(c) To reassure.
(d) To deter.

13. What does the author say "catches up with kingdoms and crushes them" in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) "Power."
(b) "Judgment."
(c) "God."
(d) "Time."

14. In what periodical was "Down at the Cross" first published?
(a) Publisher's Weekly.
(b) Time.
(c) Reader's Digest.
(d) The New Yorker.

15. What word from "Down at the Cross" refers to a large area of unforested grassland in southeastern Europe or Siberia?
(a) Ravine.
(b) Gully.
(c) Corral.
(d) Steppe.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author claim to be the seeming "sum of our achievement" as humans, in "Down at the Cross"?

2. What word from "Down at the Cross" means something continuing without pause or interruption?

3. What does the author claim is the only thing to "cause any of those people to treat you as they presumably wanted to be treated" in "Down at the Cross"?

4. When dd Elijah Muhammad die?

5. As the author describes growing up in Harlem in "Down at the Cross," he says, "In the same way that the girls were destined to gain as much weight as their mothers, the boys, it was clear, would" what?

(see the answer keys)

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