View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: "Part One: Toxins in the Permafrost and Heat Rising All Around" .

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 reference to a dowager aunt is an example of what literary technique?
(a) Synechdoche.
(b) Metaphor.
(c) Allusion.
(d) Simile.

2. In the opening anecdote of the book, what escapes from the melting permafrost?
(a) SARS-CoV-2.
(b) Nuclear waste.
(c) Mercury.
(d) Anthrax.

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

4. On page 16, Wilkerson says that people adjust to the "idiosyncrasies" of an old house. What is she saying that they adjust to?
(a) Its negative qualities.
(b) Its layout and design.
(c) Its peculiar or unique features.
(d) Its positive qualities.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 study of race in America?

2. As Wilkerson explains on page 9, under what circumstances can mental health professionals make a diagnosis public?

3. On page 6, Wilkerson refers to white "preeminence." What quality is she referring to?

4. 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"?

5. What technique does Wilkerson use for the first time in the beginning of "An Old House and an Infrared Light"?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 371 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample