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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a "cheese boy" in the vernacular of Alexandra, South Africa?

2. Who paid for the author's lawyer and bail money?

3. Why did Patricia warn the author not to tell Abel about the incident under the mulberry tree?

4. According to the author, what did the name "Hitler" connote to black South Africans in the area and time where the author grew up?

5. How did poverty make it harder for the author to dress attractively during grade 9?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened to the Khoisan tribe after Europeans colonized South Africa?

2. What did Patricia tell the security guard to do when he reported the author for shop-lifting at the age of ten?

3. How does the author describe his early thoughts about his victims when he starts a life of crime in the story "The Cheese Boys"?

4. What geographical explanation does the author give when he states that "it's physically impossible for [Alexandra] to change" (201)?

5. What was the purpose of the event where the author and his crew got in trouble for chanting Hitler's name?

6. How multilingual is South Africa?

7. Why could none of the police recognize the author in the security footage?

8. How did Patricia respond when the author tried to tell Abel what happened under the mulberry tree?

9. What conclusion did the author draw after his encounter with the police at the end of the story "The Cheese Boys"?

10. What attribute of the author's aided him in his business fetching lunch for people but also prevented his romantic success?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At many different points throughout the collection "Born a Crime," Trevor Noah describes the complications of his racial identity. Write an essay analyzing the role that race played in challenging and facilitating the author's understanding of himself as he grew up.

Essay Topic 2

In several passages within the collection "Born a Crime," Trevor Noah describes the colonial history of South Africa. Write an essay analyzing the role that South Africa's colonial history played in creating the social and economic conditions of the author's childhood, and how these conditions ultimately shaped his identity.

Essay Topic 3

According to the collection "Born a Crime," food was a major indicator of the quality of Trevor Noah's life growing up. Write an essay analyzing how the author depicts and describes his diet at various points in his life, explaining how it relates to freedom, prosperity and the lack thereof.

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