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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. When legislation was finally adopted to limit the workday of enslaved persons, how long did their workday become?
(a) 14-15 hours.
(b) 9-10 hours.
(c) 12 hours.
(d) 18 hours.

2. In "Chapter Six: The Measure of Humanity," where does Wilkerson say that the idea of race began?
(a) In colonial India.
(b) In the transatlantic slave trade.
(c) During the Moorish invasion of Spain.
(d) In Ancient Greece and Rome.

3. According to Wilkerson, what serves as a signal of rank within the American caste system?
(a) Religion.
(b) Race.
(c) Education.
(d) Wealth.

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"?
(a) It has meanings that can be applied to both literal structures and to abstract structures.
(b) Its connotations evoke the idea of a swamp or mire.
(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.

5. 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) Allusion.
(b) Synechdoche.
(c) Simile.
(d) Metaphor.

Short Answer Questions

1. On page 6, Wilkerson calls a financial crisis "cataclysmic." What kind of crisis was it?

2. 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?

3. In "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" what does Harold Hale do when people knock down his mailbox?

4. On page 11, what does Wilkerson indicate the term "evangelical voters" is code for?

5. On page 16, Wilkerson says that people adjust to the "idiosyncrasies" of an old house. What is she saying that they adjust to?

(see the answer key)

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