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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

4. Why did the author cry after he and Patricia retrieved Fufi?
(a) He cried because Fufi loved another boy.
(b) He cried because the other boy gave him a vicious cussing out.
(c) He cried because Fufi bit him.
(d) He cried because Patricia was so impatient with him.

5. How did the author track Robert down after his mother instructed him to do so?
(a) He consulted a local shaman.
(b) He searched Cape Town on foot.
(c) He contacted the Swiss embassy.
(d) He released an ad in the newspaper.

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

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

8. Where did Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko go to school?
(a) They did not go to school.
(b) They went to school over seas.
(c) Schools founded by British missionaries.
(d) Government-run Bantu schools.

9. Who did the author accuse of tricking his mother into going to church the day they were threatened in the minibus?
(a) He claimed that the pastor tricked his mother.
(b) Trevor claimed that he tricked her himself.
(c) He accused the Devil.
(d) He accused God.

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

11. What did Patricia do after discovering the fecal matter in the trashcan?
(a) She called people over to pray to rid their house of demons.
(b) She buried the fecal matter.
(c) She punished Trevor for making a mess.
(d) She took the trash out to the curb.

12. 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 that the kids in the B classes would beat him up.
(b) She warned him the kids in the B classes would hold him back.
(c) She warned him that he was not smart enough for the B classes.
(d) She warned him that the B classes were too full.

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

14. Who was the only member of the author's family who was willing to use corporal punishment on him?
(a) His father.
(b) His aunt.
(c) His grandmother.
(d) His mother.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is NOT a language that Patricia taught to the author?

2. Where did Abel go after he was forced to move out of the home of the white family he lived with?

3. What does the author say is impressive about the timing of his mother's decision to have him?

4. How did arguments between the author and his mother change after the author turned eight?

5. Why was the author surprised when Patricia insisted that he go see his father?

(see the answer keys)

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