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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 was Elwood's answer when he was later asked "how many licks he got" (68) at the White House?
(a) He did not know.
(b) 20.
(c) None.
(d) 50.

2. When Elwood joined the A and M students in a protest during his junior year, they were all fighting to integrate what type of establishments?
(a) Schools.
(b) Movie theaters.
(c) Churches.
(d) Libraries.

3. When Elwood Curtis saw what kind of trees over the shoulder of the reporter on television, he knew he would have to return to the Nickel Academy?
(a) Maples.
(b) Madronas.
(c) Cedars.
(d) Oaks.

4. In what kind of a shop was 13-year-old Elwood hired to work for Mr. Marconi?
(a) A book shop.
(b) A tobacco shop.
(c) A water sports shop.
(d) A shoe shop.

5. Turner told Elwood upon their first meeting that he hailed from what city?
(a) Dallas.
(b) Houston.
(c) Gainesville.
(d) Galveston.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many feet long was the leather strap called Black Beauty" (67)?

2. Which members of the Richmond Hotel staff played a trick on 12-year-old Elwood using a set of encyclopedias?

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

4. How many minutes did each Nickel Boy get inside the communal showers each day?

5. On what day of Elwood's incarceration at Nickel does he meet Turner?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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)?

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

4. 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?

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

6. What happened to prevent Elwood from attending his first class at Marvin Griggs Technical?

7. What Christmas present did Elwood receive in 1962 that the narrator described as "the best gift of his life" (11)?

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

9. What was ironic about Harriet's punishment of Elwood upon learning that he had participated in a protest?

10. Who was Elwood and what event prompted him to need to return to Nickel?

(see the answer keys)

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