View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Dorothy Vaughan go to speak with the division chief of The Flight Research Division?

2. What Supreme Court announcement did Katherine Goble Johnson discuss with her male coworkers?

3. Where did NASA move the space program to in anticipation of the large number of people needed to accomplish the manned orbital flight?

4. What was the first machine used at Langley to perform computations?

5. What was Christine Mann Darden's job when she was in high school?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was the U.S. Army called to a school in Little Rock, Arkansas?

2. Why did Katherine Goble Johnson eat at her desk when she worked in the Flight Research Division?

3. What happened that allowed Katherine Goble Johnson the opportunity to publish her first research report?

4. Why did Melvin Butler fail to inform the engineering staff that James Williams was black?

5. What happened at Moton High School that drew them into the Brown v. Board of Education case?

6. Why did Katherine Goble Johnson decide not to let the engineer who walked away from her when she sat at a desk bother her?

7. Why was there confusion about which room to place Katherine Goble Johnson's mother in when she was in the hospital?

8. How did black families handle the closing of schools in Prince Edward due to defunding by segregationists?

9. Why was Katherine Goble Johnson warned not to ask for a transfer to an engineering group when she started working at Langley?

10. Why did Dorothy Lee regret agreeing with a reporter when she said that women had to act like ladies in the workplace?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shetterly periodically introduces a new individual in the book, which helps to move the story forward into the future. Write an essay describing the way in which Shetterly introduces individuals and how that keeps the timeline of the book moving forward. Why does Shetterly introduce individuals in the way she does? How does her introduction of new individuals show the way in which the work one woman did helped the next woman to succeed?

Essay Topic 2

Shetterly dedicates an entire chapter to Mary Jackson’s son entering a soap box derby. Write an essay explaining the purpose of this chapter. How does the chapter relate to the themes of the book? What information about the individuals focused on does Shetterly communicate through this chapter? What information does the chapter communicate about racial relations during the time period?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay explaining why Shetterly includes a discussion of the original Star Trek television series. What was important about the series? How did it relate to the civil rights movement? How did the series relate to the work being done at Langley?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 998 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample