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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Patricia handle "major disputes" (84) with the author?
(a) She wrote extra-length letters.
(b) She got other members of the family to help argue with him.
(c) She insisted on arguing in Xhosa.
(d) She beat him.

2. How did the author's mother save him from the threatening men on the mini-bus?
(a) She threw him out of the vehicle.
(b) She threatened the men into leaving them alone.
(c) She beat the men senseless.
(d) She bribed the men into leaving them alone.

3. What crime did the author's parents commit when they had him?
(a) They each had intercourse with a person of another race.
(b) They kidnapped him from his real parents.
(c) They illegally crossed the border to have him in Swaziland.
(d) They hired an off-the-books midwife to deliver him.

4. What did the vet reveal to the author about his dog, Fufi, after she died?
(a) Fufi died of natural causes.
(b) Fufi was actually a coyote.
(c) Fufi had been pregnant.
(d) Fufi was deaf.

5. What made the author "realize [he] was black" (59)?
(a) Going to H. A. Jack Primary.
(b) Seeing his mother write "black" on a government census.
(c) Failing to get along with his white father.
(d) Going to an elite private school where students were socially integrated.

6. Which church does the author describe as "passionate" and "cathartic"?
(a) The mostly white church.
(b) The mostly black church.
(c) The multiracial church.
(d) The Chinese church.

7. How does the author explain his remark that he and his mother "weren't just mother and son" (70)?
(a) "I was like her savior."
(b) "She was like my boss."
(c) "We never got along at all."
(d) "We were a team."

8. Who did the author forget was in the house when he defecated on the newspaper?
(a) Koko.
(b) Temperance.
(c) Nombuyiselo.
(d) Frances.

9. When was the Immorality Act passed?
(a) 1877.
(b) 1927.
(c) 1977.
(d) 1827.

10. How did arguments between the author and his mother change after the author turned eight?
(a) They stopped arguing altogether.
(b) They started arguing about more mature topics.
(c) Their arguments became nastier and more personal.
(d) They began to argue in writing instead of in person.

11. How did the author view the "destructive" (79) antics from his youth?
(a) He had an insatiable desire to see the world burn.
(b) He was not destructive at all, he just got a bad rap because of his racial identity.
(c) He wanted vengeance on those that wronged him.
(d) He was creating chaos to see how people reacted.

12. Who threw the author from a moving vehicle when he was a young boy?
(a) His mother.
(b) His father.
(c) A policeman.
(d) A bank robber.

13. What happened to the cats that Patricia adopted after moving to Eden Park?
(a) They were mutilated.
(b) They had too many kittens.
(c) They got sick and had to be put down.
(d) They ran away.

14. What happened when the author tried to show his friend how to burn his name into pieces of wood?
(a) They accidentally burned down the author's friend's house.
(b) They wrote their names in the side of the house and got in trouble.
(c) His friend wrote a bad word and blamed it on the author.
(d) The author and his friend started a moderately successful wood furnishing business.

15. What unusual career move did Patricia make in the early 1980s?
(a) She became a housekeeper.
(b) She started working in a factory.
(c) She became a secretary.
(d) She became a chiropractor.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did people in Soweto use the author as a landmark for giving directions when he was young?

2. Which tribe does the author describe as "thinkers"?

3. The children of Soweto would yell out "indoda yomlungu!" whenever they passed the author. What does this phrase mean?

4. How did the author first endear himself to the black students at H. A. Jack Primary?

5. According to the author, how do white people treat dogs in South Africa?

(see the answer keys)

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