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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 2: "Part Two: The Arbitrary Construction of Human Divisions".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the page 15 sentence "An old house is its own kind of devotional, a dowager aunt with a story to be coaxed out of her," the idea that the house has a story to tell is an example of what literary technique?
(a) Litotes.
(b) Metonymy.
(c) Personification.
(d) Apostrophe.

2. In Wilkerson's anecdote about the house inspector, how does he "see past the plaster" (17)?
(a) By reading the blueprints.
(b) By using his professional experience.
(c) By using an infrared camera.
(d) By using an x-ray machine.

3. On page 15, Wilkerson says of the old house that "whatever is lurking will fester." What is especially apt about her choice of the word "fester"?
(a) Its connotations evoke the idea of a swamp or mire.
(b) It has meanings that can be applied to both literal structures and to abstract structures.
(c) It has a lighter and more comic "sound" than the synonyms Wilkerson might have chosen.
(d) Its sibilance is part of an alliterative pattern.

4. Which leading Black intellectual corresponded with Bhimrao Ambedkar about race in America?
(a) William Monroe Trotter.
(b) Thurgood Marshall.
(c) W.E.B. Du Bois.
(d) Booker T. Washington.

5. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," what does the Nigerian playwright tell Wilkerson about Blacks in Africa?
(a) They are also prejudiced against Black Americans.
(b) They are afraid to come to the U.S.
(c) They also have a history of slavery.
(d) They do not exist.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Wilkerson, what serves as a signal of rank within the American caste system?

2. On page 68 of "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what does Wilkerson say is "one of the most contentious and misunderstood" words in American culture?

3. In "Through the Fog of Delhi to the Parallels in India and America," what is one of the main differences that Wilkerson notes between caste in America and caste in India?

4. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," what reason does Wilkerson give for most people's participation in the American caste system?

5. On page 12, Wilkerson says that some contagions can only be managed with "vigilance." How is she proposing they should be managed?

(see the answer key)

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