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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What instruction did Katherine Goble Johnson give her daughters' principal after her husband died?
(a) Not to give her daughters any special treatment.
(b) To go easy on her grieving daughters.
(c) To avoid talking about her husband's death.
(d) To allow Dorothy Vaughan to pick the children up from school.

2. What was the purpose of the document titled "Introduction to Outer Space" that was prepared by President Eisenhower's Advisory Committee on Science?
(a) The document was used as a teaching tool for new engineers.
(b) The document was used as a recruiting tool for NASA.
(c) The document was used in high schools to teach space science.
(d) The document explained spaceflight in layman's terms to make the case that a space program was in America's best interests.

3. Why was there sometimes confusion over Katherine Goble Johnson's race?
(a) She was also of Chinese descent.
(b) She had blue eyes.
(c) She was very light-skinned.
(d) Her personality made people forget to think about her skin color.

4. What was Kaz's response when Mary told him about being laughed at by the white computers?
(a) He told her that if she did not like being laughed at, she should work somewhere else.
(b) He laughed at her.
(c) He reprimanded the white computers.
(d) He invited her to come and work for him.

5. How many students were killed in the bus crash at Moton High School?
(a) Ten.
(b) One.
(c) Five.
(d) Three.

6. What was the first machine used at Langley to perform computations?
(a) An Apple computer.
(b) An abacus.
(c) An IBM computer.
(d) A Bell calculator.

7. What position was Dorothy Lee subbing in when she impressed the branch chief with her math skills and earned her permanent position in his branch?
(a) Bookkeeper.
(b) Engineer.
(c) Secretary.
(d) Computer.

8. What was Christine Mann Darden's job when she was in high school?
(a) She worked in a library.
(b) She worked as maid in a hotel.
(c) She worked in an antiques store at a hotel.
(d) She worked in a laundromat.

9. Where was the secret bunker for politicians to be evacuated to in the event of a Russian attack?
(a) Under the Greenbrier hotel.
(b) Under Hampton High School.
(c) Under the Washington Monument.
(d) Under the Langley Research Center.

10. Who was the division chief of The Flight Research Division when Katherine Goble Johnson was sent to work there?
(a) John Becker.
(b) R. T. Jones.
(c) James William.
(d) Henry Pearson.

11. Why did Langley employees hold meetings and social gatherings in their own Activities Building in the 1950s?
(a) So they could avoid trying to find a public building that would allow a racially mixed group.
(b) Because it was the nicest building in the area.
(c) Because they did not want people outside the laboratory to hear what they talked about.
(d) Because it was the only building in the area large enough to accommodate them.

12. Besides fearing an attack, what bothered Americans about Russia launching Sputnik?
(a) Americans were humiliated that Russia had beat them to space.
(b) Americans believed Russia was using the satellite to monitor their communications.
(c) Americans believed Russia had stolen plans for its satellite from America.
(d) Americans were only weeks away from launching a manned spacecraft.

13. In what year was East Computing disbanded?
(a) 1943.
(b) 1961.
(c) 1947.
(d) 1953.

14. What was the name of Mary Jackson's son who entered into the soap box derby race?
(a) Leonard.
(b) Levi.
(c) Arthur.
(d) William.

15. How did Mary Jackson see her son's opportunity to build a soap box derby car?
(a) As a waste of time.
(b) As a way of boosting his self-esteem.
(c) As a way to show that he could do anything white children could do.
(d) As an apprenticeship in engineering.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did President Eisenhower want America's first spaceflight to be perceived?

2. What was the name of Senator Byrd's movement against integration?

3. What did Executive Order 10925, signed by President Kennedy, call for?

4. What percentage of the world's population did NACA's chief legal counsel say was "colored" in a memo written in 1956?

5. In what year did NACA become NASA?

(see the answer keys)

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