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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. How many generations of Elwood's family had worked at the Richmond Hotel over the years?
(a) 4.
(b) 5.
(c) 3.
(d) 2.

2. On the last day of school, Mr. Hill gave Elwood a book by which black writer?
(a) Langston Hughes.
(b) Zora Neale Hurston.
(c) James Baldwin.
(d) Lucille Clifton.

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

4. The White House had once been used in what other capacity?
(a) As a chapel.
(b) As a schoolroom.
(c) As a work shed.
(d) As a game room.

5. In what Florida city did Elwood live with his grandmother Harriet?
(a) Broward.
(b) Tallahassee.
(c) Pensacola.
(d) Miami.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Harriet worried about the dangers involved in fighting for civil rights, she always returned to her belief in what as "a fundamental virtue" (33)?

2. 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?

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

4. During what period of Elwood's life did he play a game wherein he tried to guess how may "Negro patrons" (18) were seated in the Richmond Hotel's dining room?

5. For how many nights was Elwood permitted to sleep in his own home between his sentencing and his departure for Nickel?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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 The Andy Griffith Show in Chapter 7?

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

6. In what way does Whitehead employ foreshadowing about Superintendent Spencer's character?

7. Who was Mr. Hill?

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

9. 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)?

10. How did Elwood turn the nasty trick played by the Richmond Hotel staff into a boon?

(see the answer keys)

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