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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does the author step off the train when he first enters Brownsville?
(a) Broadview Avenue.
(b) Rockaway Avenue.
(c) Main Street.
(d) 35th Street.

2. What were the author's lasting feelings about his school years?
(a) A lifelong sense of being judged.
(b) A hopeful feeling of accomplishment.
(c) A feeling of success.
(d) A feeling of inadequacy.

3. What kind of dresses did Mrs. B wear?
(a) Stiff Nun's habits.
(b) Billowing chiffon dresses.
(c) Ankle length flowery dresses.
(d) Plain, old fashioned dressses.

4. Who did the author feel could intercede with God for him?
(a) His Rabbi.
(b) The Biblical Deborah.
(c) His father.
(d) His mother.

5. How did the author's parents feel of his generation?
(a) They were too frivolous.
(b) They were free.
(c) They were careless.
(d) They were foolish.

6. What did the big Italians sell and during what time?
(a) Yogurt during the spring.
(b) Watermelons during the summer.
(c) Roasted nuts during the winter.
(d) Baked apples during the fall.

7. How did the author feel about being confirmed?
(a) He did it out of peer pressure.
(b) He did it for the gifts.
(c) He was positive it was what he wanted to do.
(d) He did it for his mother and out of tradition.

8. During his childhood subway train rides to "the city," what told the author that he was on his last leg home?
(a) The East River.
(b) The east and west side express lane junctions.
(c) The Brooklyn-Clark Station.
(d) The Borough Hall Station.

9. Who did the author say it was good to be back among?
(a) The children playing handball on the street.
(b) The women who shouted from the market.
(c) The children playing stickball on on the block.
(d) His family.

10. How did the Jews greet the Sabbath?
(a) "As a ghost."
(b) "As a bride."
(c) "As a newborn babe."
(d) "As a groom."

11. The author's childhood school is still standing in the neighborhood, how does the school feel to the author?
(a) Cold and damp.
(b) Like a castle.
(c) Like home.
(d) Like a hospital.

12. Who inspired the teaching style and curriculum of the author's civics teacher?
(a) Herbert Hoover.
(b) Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
(c) Theodore Roosevelt.
(d) Calvin Coolidge.

13. What trait did the author's mother posses that she was most ashamed of?
(a) She couldn't speak English.
(b) She was superstitious.
(c) She had a large scar on her hand.
(d) She had a limp on her right side.

14. What physical trait was the author most embarrassed by during his early school years?
(a) His religion.
(b) His limp.
(c) His birthmark.
(d) His stammer.

15. What did the author's mother do to remember her parent's deaths?
(a) She lit the mourning candle twice a year.
(b) She went dancing, her parents favorite thing to do together.
(c) She sat around and told stories of her parents to her friends.
(d) She went to the cemetary where they were buried and laid flowers at their graves.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where was the author's father offered a homestead while he was working for the Union Pacific Railway?

2. Where did the author run away from his father?

3. What is seltzer to the poor Jews?

4. How did the author feel about the women who sat around his dinner table on Friday nights?

5. What was the author listening to when he last saw his childhood kitchen?

(see the answer keys)

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