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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Dorothy Vaughan reinvent her career after the Analysis and Computation Division was created?
(a) She became an engineer.
(b) She became a computer programmer.
(c) She became the head of the division.
(d) She went back to teaching school.

2. What important research had the men in The Flight Research Division presented just weeks before Katherine Goble Johnson was sent to work there?
(a) Research on slotted wind tunnel walls.
(b) Research on space flight.
(c) Research on the control of fighter planes.
(d) Research on air turbulence.

3. What was the name of Senator Byrd's movement against integration?
(a) Rightful Resistance.
(b) School Safety.
(c) White Power.
(d) Massive Resistance.

4. What did school boards in the community around Langley do to keep black students from attending white schools after schools were integrated?
(a) They paid "school fees" to the families.
(b) They did not allow black students to participate in extracurricular activities.
(c) They offered scholarships to black students who graduated from black schools.
(d) They placed black students in lower level classes than white students.

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

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

7. What made white computers laugh at Mary Jackson?
(a) She was not allowed to sit with them in the cafeteria.
(b) She asked them where the bathroom was.
(c) She did not know how to use a calculator.
(d) She made a calculation error.

8. Why was it difficult for Mary Jackson to attend engineering classes at Hampton High School?
(a) The school was segregated.
(b) She had to walk there.
(c) The classes were not open to women.
(d) Her supervisor had to give her permission to attend an engineering class.

9. What was the name of America's first manned space project?
(a) Apollo.
(b) Project Scout.
(c) Project Mercury.
(d) Challenger.

10. What did Executive Order 10925, signed by President Kennedy, call for?
(a) Affirmative action.
(b) Desegregation of the military.
(c) Abolition of the Jim Crow laws.
(d) Desegregation of schools.

11. What did the students in Christine Mann Darden's high school worry about when they heard the Brown v. Board of Education decision?
(a) They worried that they would be forced to move to where they could go to white schools.
(b) They worried that their school would be closed.
(c) They worried that their white classmates would be angry if the black students got better grades.
(d) They worried they would not be able to compete with white students.

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

13. What rumor about the astronauts spread around the Hampton Institute campus?
(a) That they were racist.
(b) That the astronauts were going to join the lunch counter sit ins.
(c) That there would be a black man on the first space flight.
(d) That the astronauts were contributing to the students' organizing for social change.

14. Where did Katherine Goble Johnson meet her second husband?
(a) At a school board meeting.
(b) At a basketball game.
(c) At Langley.
(d) At a church choir practice.

15. 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) Secretary.
(b) Computer.
(c) Engineer.
(d) Bookkeeper.

Short Answer Questions

1. What innovation was added to the wind tunnels to make them more closely simulate flight conditions?

2. Whose work was sabotaged by a mechanic?

3. What was Kaz's response when Mary told him about being laughed at by the white computers?

4. Why was Katherine Goble Johnson unable to go to the editorial meetings?

5. Who was branch chief that offered James Williams a place on his team?

(see the answer keys)

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