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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Ghazal," to what does the speaker compare to the stealing of someone’s name?
(a) Stealing money from a bank or precious jewels from a safe.
(b) Attacking and robbing someone at gunpoint.
(c) Pickpocketing a naive tourist.
(d) Working in the fields and stripping the stalks of stolen crops.

2. In "Declaration," an unnamed ‘he’ has sent officers to do what?
(a) Sign a document.
(b) Harass our people.
(c) Declare peace.
(d) Arrest the thieves.

3. Stanza 5 of "The Greatest Personal Privation" tells of the families destroyed how?
(a) By the ending of slavery.
(b) By the spreading of lies through famiies.
(c) Through the selling off of all the parts that make up a family.
(d) Through regularly selling off male slaves.

4. The speaker remembers angels once in a hotel room. Why were they there?
(a) To scare her.
(b) To observe her.
(c) To take to her heaven.
(d) To pass on a message to her.

5. In “I Will Tell You the Truth About This, I Will Tell You All About It,” the speaker says, although the slaves are now free, they are not really free, because they do what?
(a) Are freed from slavery and soon end up enslaved to educating themselves.
(b) Leave slavery and end up in bondage to their new bosses.
(c) Run out of slavery and out of the United States for Canada.
(d) Run right out of slavery In to soldiery.

6. In Stanza 3 of "The Greatest Personal Privation," the speaker says that the entire country may not be able to heal from what?
(a) The abuse of power.
(b) Slavery.
(c) The plantation life.
(d) This separation of parent and child.

7. What is NOT a reason why not being able to read or write hinders the paying of a pension deserved to former black Civil War soldiers?
(a) They do not know how to spell their names to request their pensions.
(b) They can steal pensions from other soldiers.
(c) They do not know what their legal names are, as they go by something else.
(d) They are not trusted to be the person deserving a pension.

8. History in "Ghazal" is described as a ship that is always setting sail where the men on either shore do what?
(a) Call us names.
(b) Destroy everything that is not our name.
(c) Fight over our name.
(d) Tease us about our name.

9. What causes the speaker in "Wade in the Water" painful grief?
(a) The people in chains.
(b) The woman going to each stranger saying, "I love you" and meaning it.
(c) The fear in everyone's eyes.
(d) The river in which people wade.

10. Of what do the memories of this "Garden of Eden" remind the speaker?
(a) Her childhood.
(b) Brooklyn and being in her thirties.
(c) College life.
(d) Her family.

11. In "Realm of Shades," what does the speaker wonder when she thinks about our shadows on the ground?
(a) How much more will we bury in the earth?
(b) How many shadows have passed this way?
(c) What hides in the shadows?
(d) Where do shadows come from?

12. In "A Man's World," when the world is shown, to what is it compared?
(a) A globe.
(b) A locket on a chain.
(c) A pocket watch.
(d) A ball of energy.

13. What does the speaker in "The Angels" hope some angels are?
(a) Children.
(b) Straight up thugs.
(c) Her friends.
(d) Grandparents.

14. In “I Will Tell You the Truth About This, I Will Tell You All About It,” a slave asks President Lincoln advise on how to leave his mistress. Why?
(a) He does not want to offend his mistress.
(b) His mistress refuses to let him go.
(c) He does not have the means to leave.
(d) He feels guilty leaving his mistress.

15. In “Unwritten,” how does the slave feel towards her mistress?
(a) She hates her passionately.
(b) She cannot wait to be freed and away from her mistress.
(c) She does not wish her mistress to suffer.
(d) She does not feel sorry for her and her privation.

Short Answer Questions

1. The character in "Hill Country" comes down the road in his jeep with the windows rolled down. Why?

2. How does "Wade in the Water" end?

3. The speaker of "Deadly" says that those who are holy imagine a strong beast that attacks and kills what?

4. Who does the speaker in "Ghazal" say has been taught their name?

5. After driving for awhile, the character in "Hill Country" gets out and walks along a limestone bank, noticing what?

(see the answer keys)

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