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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why was Patricia allowed to stay on the farm at age nine?
(a) Her aunt kept her on the farm out of the kindness of her heart.
(b) Her aunt kept her on the farm to protect her from their parents.
(c) Her aunt kept her on the farm to keep an eye on her.
(d) She was kept on the farm to work.

2. Why did people in Soweto use the author as a landmark for giving directions when he was young?
(a) His house had an unusual shape.
(b) He was always singing very loudly so you could always tell where he was.
(c) He was the only light-skinned person in the area.
(d) He was famous for his work on The Daily Show.

3. What did Patricia do when the author kept pestering her for toffee apples?
(a) She pretended to have never see him before.
(b) She called the police.
(c) She bought him a toffee apple.
(d) She beat him.

4. What diagnosis did the school psychologists give the author after he laughed while being corporally punished?
(a) They diagnosed him with sociopathy.
(b) They diagnosed him with ADHD.
(c) They diagnosed him with bipolar disorder.
(d) None-they determined he was mentally normal.

5. How did the author respond when he found out that he could not take communion because he was not Catholic?
(a) He called the owners of the school racist.
(b) He apologized for the misunderstanding.
(c) He asked if Jesus, being Jewish, would also be denied the right of communion.
(d) He converted to Catholicism.

6. 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) The author and his friend started a moderately successful wood furnishing business.
(d) His friend wrote a bad word and blamed it on the author.

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

8. What does the name Nombuyiselo mean?
(a) "A builder of ships."
(b) "She who popped out of nowhere."
(c) "She who gives back."
(d) "The Fixer."

9. What did the school counselor warn the author about when he asked to transition into the B classes at H. A. Jack Primary?
(a) She warned him the kids in the B classes would hold him back.
(b) She warned him that he was not smart enough for the B classes.
(c) She warned him that the kids in the B classes would beat him up.
(d) She warned him that the B classes were too full.

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

11. To what was Patricia referring when she spoke of "the black tax" (66)?
(a) The need to spend one's working life making up for that which was pillaged from one's ancestors.
(b) A special tax Afrikaners had to pay after apartheid to provide reparations to black people.
(c) The tendency of white employers to illegally steal the wages of black employees during apartheid.
(d) An official government tax paid only by black people.

12. Why does the author think Santa Claus is unpopular in Africa?
(a) Christmas in Africa does not include gift giving.
(b) African parents do not want to give a fat white man credit for their gifts.
(c) Belief in Santa is seen as a form of idolatry.
(d) Christianity is unpopular in Africa.

13. How would Fufi escape the author's yard?
(a) She would crawl through a small tunnel.
(b) She would beg and whine until passers by let her out.
(c) She would sneak through a broken gate.
(d) She would jump over the fence.

14. On what does the author blame most of the things that have gone wrong in his life?
(a) The death of his mother.
(b) Second-hand cars.
(c) Fear.
(d) Apartheid.

15. Where did Abel go after he was forced to move out of the home of the white family he lived with?
(a) He left to make it big in America.
(b) He was forced to live on the streets.
(c) He bought an identical house across the street.
(d) He moved in with Patricia and the author.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Patricia move at age nine?

2. According to the author, how do black people treat dogs in South Africa?

3. What language does the author indicate was especially valued for making prayers while he was growing up in Soweto?

4. How did the author's mother save him from the threatening men on the mini-bus?

5. What did Patricia do after discovering the fecal matter in the trashcan?

(see the answer keys)

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