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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 animals are described as making noise at the time of Jacqueline's birth in "Other People's Memory"?

2. What night of the week is described in "Hair Night"?

3. What line is repeated several times in the poem "The Almost Friends"?

4. Where did Jack Woodson earn a scholarship to attend college?

5. Whose dream of a ladder to heaven is described in "Bible Times"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the house described in "The Ghosts of the Nelsonville House"? Where is Nelsonville?

2. What story is related from Grandma Georgiana's perspective in "Other People’s Memory"?

3. How is the unfolding Civil Rights Movement described in the poem "South Carolina at War"?

4. How is the history of slavery described in Jackie's maternal grandparents' ancestry in "The Garden"?

5. What is the symbolic image that concludes the poem "Second Daughter’s Second Day on Earth"? What is symbolized in this imagery?

6. Who is the focus of the poem "Football Dreams"? What is related in this narrative?

7. What was Gunnar Irby's profession? What struggles did he face in his job?

8. Who are the people described in "The Almost Friends"?

9. What does the author describe calling her grandfather in "Gunnar's Children"? How does she describe her feelings for her grandfather?

10. How does the author establish the social and political atmosphere into which she was born in "Second Daughter’s Second Day on Earth"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the Woodson ancestry. How was Jacqueline Woodson related to Thomas Jefferson? How many children did Thomas Jefferson father with Sally Hemings? How does the author relate this information in Brown Girl Dreaming? Why does she relate it?

Essay Topic 2

Define the following poetry terms and discuss an example of each from Brown Girl Dreaming: assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and repetition. What purpose does each example serve for the reader? How does the poetry of Jacqueline Woodson differ when read aloud?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss South Carolina’s history of Slavery and the “trainings” and oppressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. What do “trainings” refer to? How did the trainings originate? How accurate is Gunnar’s explanation of the social unrest in South Carolina and the emerging Civil Rights Movement?

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