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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 does the author remember about Manhattan?
(a) It is where his son was born.
(b) That is is a beautiful city.
(c) It was where he learned to believe in humanity again.
(d) That it once housed slave auctions.

2. According to Solzhenitsyn, "To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is _____ " what?
(a) Good.
(b) Necessary.
(c) Compulsory.
(d) Required.

3. According to the author, what is the problem with defining a race?
(a) There is more intermarriage in a global society.
(b) There are too many variations to categorize.
(c) Race is a cultural - not genetic - term.
(d) Races shift based off of who is the "beneath" and who is the "above."

4. How was the officer who killed Prince Jones dressed?
(a) As a homeless man.
(b) In a patrol uniform.
(c) In plain clothes.
(d) As an undercover drug dealer.

5. What photographs did the mother of the author's son take while she was away?
(a) Street sleepers.
(b) Pottery.
(c) Famous statues.
(d) Doors.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author imagine white parents might tell their children?

2. What eventually happened to the officer who shot Prince Jones?

3. Whom did the author shove when his son was pushed off the escalator?

4. Whom was the author interviewing in Chicago?

5. What happened when the author was stopped by a PG County officer?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the death of the boy on page 112 (Jordan Davis) reinforce the author's theory that the "Dream" is dangerous?

2. Why did the author move to New York?

3. What lesson does the mother of the boy on page 112 (Lucia McBath) try to impart to the author's son?

4. According to the author, how do the behaviors of police departments reflect American values?

5. What in the significance of the author's vision of Prince Jones in the museum?

6. How did the author's trip to Paris affect his view of what it means to live in a black body?

7. According to the author, how does the fear of losing one's life promote violence?

8. Why did the thought of encountering the Prince George's County patrol officer frighten the author?

9. How, does Coats write, have his eyes been damaged by what he has seen?

10. Why is the author's fear of his son seeing him arrested greater than his fear of being arrested?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,306 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample