View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What drove the author's mother to work so hard?
(a) Loneliness.
(b) Duty to her husband.
(c) They needed the money.
(d) She felt the women in the neighborhood needed her.

2. The author didn't associate his school years with learning, what did he associate them with?
(a) Proving the teachers wrong.
(b) Chasing the girls in the school yard.
(c) Building good character.
(d) Avoiding the bullies who tortured him daily.

3. How did the author feel about his Hebrew classes?
(a) Confident and secure in his knowledge and faith.
(b) That he was put in the spotlight too often.
(c) That he lacked a genuine understanding of the faith and rituals.
(d) That he was a leader among his peers.

4. What association did the New York World hold for the author?
(a) The Empire State building.
(b) The Brooklyn Bridge.
(c) The Sears Tower.
(d) The subway.

5. What did the children buy from the small Italians?
(a) Shaved Ice.
(b) Strawberries.
(c) Sodas.
(d) Pasta.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the author's mother do out of loneliness every evening?

2. Did the author's mother believe her son's generation would succeed?

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

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

5. Who could the author hear crying in the streets at night as a child?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the author specifically remember the second street in 'From the Subway to the Synagogue'?

2. In what ways did the kitchen hold the author's mother's character?

3. Who does the author feel is his advocate in religion? How does the author feel about God?

4. Who does the demolished part of the author's childhood neighborhood remind the author of and why was she so important to him?

5. The author's mother was a dressmaker. What was her process of creation?

6. There was one topic of discussion on the Sabbath nights that always made the author happy. What was that topic and why?

7. What was the author most embarrassed about during his school years? What made those years worse?

8. Twice a year, the author's mother would mourn her parent's deaths. What other significance did his mother's mourning hold for the author?

9. Why didn't the author believe his cousin and her friends were of his parent's generation?

10. Why did the author have such a hard time when his mother, cousin and her friends started talking about "Heym?"

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,008 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample