View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what does Obama note Merkel holds a PhD?

2. How many Senators vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as Supreme Court Justice?

3. Which of the following does Obama appoint Agriculture Secretary?

4. Which of the following nations signed on to the Kyoto Protocol?

5. The acronym IRGC carries which of the following meanings in the memoir?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Obama explain the increasing number of regulatory agencies and delegation of authority to them by Congress?

2. To what does the “cap-and-trade” system of greenhouse gas reduction refer?

3. What does Obama note wanting to say about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill when asked about it in May 2010?

4. Why, per Elie Wiesel, did the inmates at Auschwitz teach their children math, poetry, and history?

5. What does Obama describe as the “Michelle Effect” in the memoir?

6. What reasons does Obama give for pressing strongly on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament?

7. What does Obama lament that Gates sees as “politics” that he sees as “democracy as it was supposed to work” (436-37)?

8. What parts of the UN Charter does Obama note matched his mother’s viewpoint?

9. What justification does Obama note for the vitriol of the Tea Party?

10. What does Obama note are reasons he could expect some success in the midterm elections?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Obama writes of “that most precious of gifts: the conviction of innocence, as well as the righteous indignation that comes with it” (274). What tone does the memoir adopt towards that gift? What in the memoir supports the idea? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

The memoir makes note of many, many names, mostly people who work for Obama in his offices and on his campaigns. What purpose might bringing up so many people serve? Does the memoir fulfill that purpose? How or how not?

Essay Topic 3

In the preface, Obama makes the following parenthetical remark: “I still like writing things out in longhand, finding that a computer gives even my roughest drafts too smooth a gloss and lends half-baked thoughts the mask of tidiness” (xiii). Does experience support the position? How so or not?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 794 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample