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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 3: "Part Three: The Eight Pillars of Caste".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," what percentage of Blacks worked in white-collar professions during the Great Depression?
(a) 5.
(b) 10.
(c) 15.
(d) 20.

2. In "A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America," what does Wilkerson say Americans want to dismiss as a "sad, dark chapter" of American history (43)?
(a) The Colonial treatment of Blacks.
(b) Slavery.
(c) The Jim Crow era.
(d) The Trump presidency.

3. In "Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill," what is the rhetorical purpose of including the Hammond quotes?
(a) It demonstrates that religious belief is incompatible with endorsement of a caste system.
(b) It bolsters Wilkerson's ethos, making the reader more receptive to her claims about India.
(c) This is a defining historical moment that explicitly supports the chapter's central claim.
(d) This illustrates the depth of hatred that White Southerners had for the lowest caste.

4. In "Through the Fog of Delhi to the Parallels in India and America," what is the rhetorical purpose of including the detail of the fog that Wilkerson sees when her plane lands?
(a) It foreshadows the difficulties Wilkerson will have in gaining cooperation during her visit.
(b) Wilkerson personifies the fog in an analogy that demonstrates how tradition "clouds" an understanding of present realities.
(c) Wilkerson is metaphorically challenging the reader to reason past a "fog" of propaganda.
(d) It symbolizes the difficulty of seeing the Indian social system clearly.

5. On page 59 of "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" when Harold Hale's daughter is about to return to school after a visit with a friend's family, what is the grandmother's response?
(a) "There was a time when I could have made you stay."
(b) "Colored folks around here have better manners."
(c) "We should never have had you in our home."
(d) "Why on earth would you want to go back there?"

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Chapter Five: 'The Container We Have Built for You,'" what unusual name does Harold Hale give his daughter?

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

3. Besides the caste systems in India and the United States, which other caste system does Wilkerson say that she will focus on?

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

5. What is the best definition of "endogamy" as used in "The Third Pillar: Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating"?

(see the answer key)

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