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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following does Obama note meeting in Japan?

2. Which of the following serves as Secretary of the Interior?

3. What is the vote in the Senate on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act?

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

5. With which of the following does Obama meet while in India in his second year in office?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Obama note are historical reasons midterm elections go poorly for the party in power?

4. What justification does Obama offer for sightseeing on foreign diplomatic visits?

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

6. When presented with notes about gender discrimination within his White House, what steps does Obama take to address the matter?

7. What reasons does Obama give for approving of some of his predecessor’s counterterrorism initiatives?

8. What reasons does Obama give for opposing repealing DADT via executive order?

9. What recurring dream does Obama note having during his second year in office?

10. What ideas does Obama note concerning war in preparing his Nobel acceptance speech?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Obama writes, “By nature I’m a deliberate speaker, which, by the standards of presidential candidates, helped keep my gaffe quotient relatively low. But my care with words raised another issue on the campaign trail: I was just plan wordy, and that was a problem” (83). Does the memoir bear out the observations thus made? How or how not?

Essay Topic 2

In the memoir, Obama frequently compares himself to FDR. What function does the comparison serve in the memoir? How does it serve it?

Essay Topic 3

Obama writes that “to be effective, governance couldn’t be so antiseptic that it set aside the basic stuff of politics. You had to sell your program, reward supporters, punch back against opponents, and amplify the facts that helped your cause while fudging the details that didn’t” (525). Does this appear to hold true, based on the memoir and on experience? What details affirm the position? How do they do so?

(see the answer keys)

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