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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 parts of the Nickel Boys' bodies were whipped with the strap referred to as "Black Beauty" (68)?
(a) Their stomachs.
(b) Their chests.
(c) Their legs.
(d) Their backs.

2. Elwood was told that "classroom instruction" (51) took place how often at Nickel?
(a) Every day.
(b) Three times per day.
(c) Every other day, but not on Sunday.
(d) Twice a month.

3. How many boys in total did the Nickel staff get out of their beds the night they punished Elwood and some others for fighting?
(a) 3.
(b) 5.
(c) 6.
(d) 4.

4. Who presented Elwood with a recording called "Martin Luther King at Zion Hill" (11)?
(a) Mr. Marconi.
(b) Evelyn.
(c) Mr. Hill.
(d) Harriet.

5. How many minutes did each Nickel Boy get inside the communal showers each day?
(a) 2.
(b) 7.
(c) 5.
(d) 10.

Short Answer Questions

1. Before the college students found the "secret graveyard" (3) how many bodies in total had they counted within the Nickel Academy's official cemetery?

2. What was the name of Elwood's house father at Nickel?

3. For how many years had the Nickel Academy been closed when the college students located the secret cemetery on its grounds?

4. The first line of the Prologue of The Nickel Boys states that "Even in death, the boys were" (3) what?

5. How old was Elwood when both of his parents "took off" (27) and left him in the care of his grandmother Harriet?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Whitehead use personification to depict the way that Harriet tried not to get her hopes up about the progress the black community might make in the wake of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision?

2. Which two momentous events happened on Elwood's second day at Nickel, as announced at the start of Chapter 5?

3. In what way did the grounds of Nickel surprise Elwood upon his arrival and what is this detail's significance?

4. For what purpose does Whitehead allude to Life magazine within Chapter 2?

5. How many boys were incarcerated at Nickel at the time of Elwood's arrival and in what way was the campus divided into two?

6. How are the themes of brutality and oppression intertwined within Chapter 6?

7. Who or what was Black Beauty within the twisted world of Nickel?

8. What major discovery is described in the Prologue as having led to widespread media coverage focused on the Nickel Academy?

9. Describe Elwood's family, as it is presented in Chapters 1 through 3.

10. What examples does the narrator use to back up the claim that Harriet was rarely able to "make proper goodbyes to her loved ones" (70)?

(see the answer keys)

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