View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 6: "Part Six: Backlash".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What departure from legal precedent was made in the Virginia Assembly's decision that the children of enslaved women should also be considered slaves?
(a) Prior to this, slavery was not considered to be inherited.
(b) Prior to this, status was legally passed from father to child.
(c) Prior to this, slavery was not considered a permanent condition.
(d) Prior to this, the status of both parents was factored into a child's status.

2. In the conference described in "Chapter Ten: Central Miscasting," what difficulty does Wilkerson face?
(a) The crowd is openly hostile to her presentation.
(b) Being stared at for sitting in front.
(c) The scholars in attendance refuse to speak to her.
(d) Getting copies of the papers being presented.

3. In "Chapter Twenty-Four: Cortisol, Telomeres, and the Lethality of Caste," what are the "telomeres" Wilkerson talks about?
(a) Diseases related to stress.
(b) Stress hormones.
(c) A part of the DNA strand that shortens with aging.
(d) The cell sites that respond to chemicals like cortisol.

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

5. According to "Pillar Number Four: Purity versus Pollution," what did the United States use to "curate" its population (123)?
(a) Laws defining status based on degree of African blood.
(b) Immigration policy.
(c) Jim Crow laws.
(d) Anti-miscegenation laws.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Price We Pay for a Caste System," what is the anecdote about physicist Lean Lederman intended to illustrate?

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

3. In "Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Symbols of Caste," what peaceful demonstrator is deliberately run over and killed in Charlottesville, Virginia?

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. In "Chapter Fourteen: The Intrusion of Caste in Everyday Life," who follows and questions Wilkerson when she is in an airport?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 472 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample