View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Why did the police officer help the author secure legal counsel?
(a) The officer did it because it was his legal duty.
(b) The officer did it by mistake.
(c) The officer did it because it was the right thing to do.
(d) The officer would get a kickback for giving the lawyer a client.

3. Why were the homes in Highlands North surrounded by six-foot-tall electrified walls?
(a) The homeowner's association was run by a security specialist.
(b) Highlands North was a government facility, housing top-secret agents.
(c) The walls were not electrified; that was just something Patricia told the author so that he would stop trying to climb them.
(d) The white residents feared black South Africans.

4. Why could the author not ask Maylene out right away for Valentine's Day?
(a) He wanted to ask in the form of a poem and had trouble rhyming with "Maylene."
(b) He had to relay the message through her friends first.
(c) He had to learn how to speak her native tongue.
(d) He was afraid of her boyfriend.

5. Why did Patricia warn the author not to tell Abel about the incident under the mulberry tree?
(a) Abel had just had a long day and could not handle the emotional stress of learning what happened.
(b) She knew that Abel would react with violence.
(c) She did not want Abel to know that she had raised a son who could not protect himself.
(d) She knew that Abel would laugh at the author.

6. Who were the author's number one customers?
(a) Foolish guys.
(b) White guys.
(c) Slow guys.
(d) Fat guys.

7. Why would people in Alexandra sometimes clasp their wrists together?
(a) To begin a yoga session.
(b) To ask what time it was.
(c) To indicate that someone had been arrested.
(d) To signal that they needed peace and quiet.

8. What happened when the author dropped Babiki off at her house?
(a) Her dad came out and yelled at them.
(b) They shared a bottle of wine.
(c) She screamed that she never wanted to see him again.
(d) They kissed.

9. What did the girls in the author's grade want him to do for Valentine's Day?
(a) They wanted him to teach their boyfriends to dance.
(b) They wanted him to make them all valentines.
(c) They wanted him to dress as cupid.
(d) They wanted the author to ask out his friend, Maylene.

10. 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"?
(a) He discovered a dead person's ashes in a stolen vase.
(b) He discovered a young woman's diary in a stolen suitcase.
(c) He discovered drugs in a child's fanny pack.
(d) He discovered family pictures in a digital camera.

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

12. How did the author make money when he first graduated from high school?
(a) He became a professional stand up comedian.
(b) He became a waiter.
(c) He became a professional DJ.
(d) He became a minibus driver.

13. How did the author feel about his friend Zaheera?
(a) He was using her to get closer to her friend, Gary.
(b) He was using her to get closer to her friend, Johanna.
(c) He had a massive crush on her.
(d) He thought she was annoying.

14. What crime did the author and Teddy get caught committing?
(a) Robbing an elderly person at gunpoint.
(b) Stealing chocolates from a store.
(c) Doing drugs.
(d) Assaulting a stranger.

15. What was the "pencil test" that the government administered to some colored people in South Africa?
(a) A literacy test that colored people had to pass in order to vote in South African elections.
(b) A test to determine whiteness, based on whether a pencil would stay in place if stuck in one's hair.
(c) A measurement of a worker's strength determined by how large a bundle of pencils they could break with their bare hands.
(d) A written test that, if passed, qualified a colored person to be reclassified as white.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What kind of persona did the author project while he was in jail?

3. How did the author supplement his income during grade 12?

4. How did the author feel about Maylene before Valentine's Day?

5. Why did students come out of the dance to look at Babiki?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 910 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample