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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. How does Tash refer to himself?

2. What do Sly and his friend testify?

3. What does Neeka think she cannot find in her family?

4. What does D say about a counselor's statement in a group home?

5. Who is Flo?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator's mother give her for her birthday?

2. In Chapter 11, what does D ask the narrator and Neeka if they want to do, what is their response?

3. What happens in May with the narrator and how does she feel about it?

4. What did Tash do at church before he went to prison?

5. What shocks Neeka and the narrator while listening to music and preparing for Tash's welcome home party? What do they learn about D?

6. What is D's history with foster homes?

7. How was Tash as far as dating and who did he fall for right before he went to prison, what was the man like and what did Tash convince himself about the man?

8. What does Neeka's family do while visiting with Tash and what does Miss Irene say about his lawyer? What does Tash tell her?

9. What does Tash tell Jayjones about crime?

10. How does Miss Irene react to the photographer in Chapter 15?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Jayjones arrives anxious and out of breath. He had been exercising in the park and a cop stopped him, presumably because he is black and the racist cop believed he was running from a crime. Jayjones believes a mere suit and a college education do not prevent pervasive racism.

1. Police officers stopping minorities more often than whites is called racial profiling. What measures do you think should be taken to prevent racial profiling? Discuss your opinion in depth using examples from the book and your own life.

2. What would you do if you were Jayjones and stopped by the police for no reason? Discuss your options in depth.

3. Do you think Jayjones is correct that a suit and college education does not stop racism? Why or why not? Discuss your opinion in depth using examples from the book and your own life.

Essay Topic 2

The narrator doesn't know who her own father is, either. Mama expresses regret for the narrator not having a father. Some days Mama looks sadly out the window, and the narrator can tell she's thinking of what could have been.

1. Do you think most of the characters in this book regret something in their past? Discuss your opinion in depth using examples from the book.

2. How do you think not knowing her father has affected the narrator's life and her feelings about herself and others? Use examples from the book and your own life to support your answer.

3. Do you think dwelling on the past and what might have been can negatively impact the present? Why or why not? Use examples from the book and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Chapter eleven is perhaps the most important chapter in the book. Its central event involves the three girls disobeying their mothers' orders not to leave the block. This act is literally and figuratively evidence of maturation. The maturation culminates in a personal transformation Neeka and the narrator feel when they are on the stage of the amphitheater. They announce "We're here!" as if proclaiming their entrance into adulthood. Examining the symbolism of the setting, the girls have finally gone from mere onlookers in life to the doers, the actors, on stage.

1. Discuss, in depth, the symbolism in the scene from the amphitheater. Use examples from After Tupac and D Foster to illustrate and support your answer.

2. Why do you think the narrator and Neeka disobeying their mothers might be evidence of maturation? Students may consider the act of baby birds flying from the nest. Use examples from After Tupac and D Foster to illustrate and support your answer.

3. Why do you think the narrator said she felt "whole" for the first time when the girls were at the amphitheater? Use examples from After Tupac and D Foster to illustrate and support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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