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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did poverty make it harder for the author to dress attractively during grade 9?
(a) He had plenty of money but he did not want to make his poorer classmates jealous so he wore cheap clothes to make them feel better.
(b) At the time, you needed to pay for a special license to wear nice clothes in South Africa.
(c) His mother bought him extra-baggy clothing so he would not outgrow it too quickly.
(d) The school had special, unsightly uniforms for children who could not afford their own.

2. Why did the author perform at the Hammanskraal talent show?
(a) He had some new stand-up comedy material to try out.
(b) He wanted to show off how many languages he could speak.
(c) His friend Tom had promised them he was the famous hip hop hype man, Spliff Star.
(d) He had been challenged to play the ukulele as a dare.

3. Why did the author have trouble fitting in with his white classmates at Sandingham?
(a) They could not understand him when he spoke.
(b) They only wanted to listen to grunge rock.
(c) Their parents forbade them from hanging out with him.
(d) They were always doing things that required spending money.

4. What tribe was native to South Africa when it was first colonized by Europeans?
(a) The Khoisan.
(b) The Xhosa.
(c) The Afrikaners.
(d) The Zulu.

5. Who did the author credit with giving him and his friends permission to chant Hitler's name?
(a) Nelson Mandela.
(b) Benito Mussolini.
(c) Morgan Freeman.
(d) Joseph Goebbels.

6. How did the author know Tom and Bongani?
(a) They were his principal's sons.
(b) They worked for him.
(c) They were his brothers.
(d) They were his mentors at school.

7. How did Zaheera feel about the author?
(a) She did not know that he existed.
(b) She liked him back and secretly wished that he would ask her out.
(c) She thought of him as just a friend.
(d) She hated him.

8. What did the author and Mayelene have in common?
(a) They both hated the entire idea of Valentine's Day.
(b) They both had crushes on a white boy named Lorenzo.
(c) They lived in the same house together.
(d) They both had a mix of white and black ancestry.

9. What did Babiki refuse to do once she and the author arrived at the dance?
(a) Stop singing.
(b) Leave the car.
(c) Kiss the author.
(d) Keep her shoes on.

10. How did Abel respond when the author told him what happened under the mulberry tree?
(a) He laughed at the author.
(b) He hunted down the boys who beat the author and he beat up their ring leader.
(c) He bought the author a new toy to cheer him up.
(d) He told the author to go defend himself.

11. How did the mothers of Alexandra feel about the author and his fellow "cheese boys"?
(a) Mothers were some of their best customers.
(b) Mothers feared the cheese boys.
(c) Mothers knew nothing of the cheese boys' antics.
(d) Mothers hated the cheese boys.

12. Why did the author have trouble fitting in with his colored classmates at Sandingham?
(a) They all lived far away.
(b) They spent all their free time doing expensive things.
(c) They would bully him for being too white.
(d) They would bully him for being too black.

13. What does the author suspect of his friend from Alexandra who lost his retail job?
(a) He suspected his friend was a murderer.
(b) He suspected his friend lost the job on purpose.
(c) He suspected his friend never got a job to begin with.
(d) He suspected his friend had an even better job lined up next.

14. What was the name of the best dancer on the author's crew?
(a) Tom.
(b) Trevor.
(c) Babiki.
(d) Hitler.

15. What did the teacher who unplugged the author's speakers assume about the author and his dance crew?
(a) She assumed that they would be playing more pop ballads.
(b) She assumed that they would be more skilled dancers.
(c) She assumed that they had never heard of Adolf Hitler.
(d) She assumed that they were mocking the school's Jewish population.

Short Answer Questions

1. What advice did Patricia give the author for how he should act if his wife made more money than him?

2. With whom did Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah want the author to hang out instead of his friends from Alexandra?

3. What holiday did the author experience for the first time at H. A. Jack Primary?

4. What did the author discover in a stolen object, causing him to rethink his life of crime as described in the story "The Cheese Boys"?

5. What does the Afrikans term "amperbaas," used to refer to the status of colored people under apartheid, mean?

(see the answer keys)

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