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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did the author learn from television as a young boy?
(a) All children live in fear.
(b) There is hope for his escape.
(c) The world is a terrifying place.
(d) There are children in other neighborhoods who do not live in fear.

2. The author admires Malcolm X because he never:
(a) Hesitated.
(b) Lied.
(c) Ran.
(d) Gave up.

3. For whom was the author's son named?
(a) Samori Touré.
(b) Martin Luther King.
(c) Malcom X.
(d) Robert Hayden.

4. How old was Tamir Rice when he was shot?
(a) Six.
(b) Two.
(c) 21.
(d) 12.

5. For how many years were black people enslaved in America?
(a) 50 years.
(b) 100 years.
(c) 150 years.
(d) 250 years.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Queen Nzinga address the social insult of the Dutch ambassador?

2. What essential question does the author pose in his memoir?

3. Coats explains that the young men who walk the streets of Baltimore loud and rude do so because:

4. What has been the prevalent emotion in the author's life?

5. Where is Howard University located?

Short Essay Questions

1. How important were books to the author as he was growing up?

2. What revelation does the author have about the European perception of Africans during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

3. Why did the author's son experience such extreme grief when Michael Brown's killer was set free?

4. What is meant by "Tolstoy is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?"

5. For what reasons did the author's father punish him and why?

6. Why didn't the author console his son when Samori grieved over the release of Michael Brown's killer?

7. What assumptions does the author make about PG County (Prince George's County) police officers and why?

8. What does the author mean when he says the school system and the streets are "two arms of the same beast"?

9. What influence did Malcom X have on the author as a young man?

10. How does research and study affect the author as a young man?

(see the answer keys)

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