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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When the white parents consider the brown girls and their families the good, hardworking immigrants, the girls realize what about their own families?
(a) They do not consider themselves immigrants.
(b) They have never considered themselves good or hardworking.
(c) They have said the same thing.
(d) They are not good or hardworking.

2. What is the reason the narrator gives for why the brown girls would never date a brown boy?
(a) Although he is good looking, he does not look – you know.
(b) Although he is good looking, he is not going anywhere.
(c) He is not good looking or intelligent.
(d) He is mean and rude.

3. How do the girls feel about the store clerk?
(a) They are annoyed.
(b) They are amused.
(c) They are pissed.
(d) They are frightened.

4. Regarding the commandment for the girls to not be wayward, what is also not allowed to be discussed?
(a) Dating.
(b) Birth control options.
(c) Marriage.
(d) What it is like being pregnant.

5. Why do the girls’ parents feel it is best that the girls date boys like them?
(a) Relationships with others will never last.
(b) They do not want to be ostracized.
(c) They do not want the community to talk about them behind their backs.
(d) The others are unfaithful and too different.

6. What is the example given by the narrator for how the girls know how to keep family secrets?
(a) They pretend they do not know anything about their families.
(b) They try to forget their family secrets.
(c) They lie and say their immediate family members are the only ones who live in their homes.
(d) They often blackmail each other to keep each other quiet.

7. What is NOT one of the Commandments described in Our Mothers’ Commandments?
(a) You shall not be an ugly girl.
(b) You shall not be a loud girl with many opinions.
(c) You shall not be a troublesome girl.
(d) You shall not be a dumb girl.

8. What is NOT a place that the narrator mentions as being in her neighborhood?
(a) White Castle.
(b) Rainbow apparel store.
(c) An auto repair shop.
(d) Nail salons.

9. What does the narrator say the other boys are?
(a) Practically celebrities.
(b) Absolute perfection.
(c) Wanna-bees.
(d) All-American boys.

10. Part One, Brown Girls begins with the narrator describing the area in which she and her friends live. What is a way she does NOT describe it?
(a) A lonely tree grows.
(b) The dregs of Queens, New York.
(c) In front yards, not to be confused with actual lawns, grandmothers string laundry lines.
(d) The ghetto of Long Island, New York.

11. What is the nickname for the central road through the narrator’s neighborhood?
(a) The “Racetrack.”
(b) “Times Square.”
(c) The “Boulevard of death.”
(d) The “Express train.”

12. When white boys call the brown girls beautiful, how do the girls NOT react, according to the narrator?
(a) Some openly laugh at the boys.
(b) Some believe it because they know their own worth.
(c) Some smile but do not believe them.
(d) Some believe it as they have been dying for this their entire lives.

13. What does the narrator say about the native tongues of the girls in “Art”?
(a) They have become half-remembered melodies.
(b) They draw attention to the girls and their art.
(c) They have grown increasingly more important.
(d) They help the girls in expressing themselves as artists.

14. In Our Mothers Speak, what is NOT an example given by the narrator of the advice and wisdom given out by brown mothers?
(a) Have children.
(b) Get married.
(c) Move back to the motherland.
(d) Go to school.

15. What do the brown girls and boys NOT notice as they cross through Prospect Park?
(a) More police officers patrolling the streets.
(b) White women out jogging.
(c) The grass grows thick with rows of flowers.
(d) No trash.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the girls give up when family and friends from their native lands come to stay?

2. In Part One, Other Boys, what boys does the narrator describe falling for?

3. In Part One, Girls Like You, the narrator tells of what form of public transportation she and her friends take to get to the mall?

4. Some brown boys call the girls by their real names rather than their American names. How do the girls react?

5. How many days before school starts the girls who have chosen to leave Queens begin to question their choices?

(see the answer keys)

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