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. How many Bob Marley songs did Howard cover when he sant cabaret in the west coast hotels?

2. How long before Sinclair started school at St. James College, did she go to get her school books?

3. When Sinclair and her sisters were secured in Bickersteth after Sinclair quit studying with the Old Poet, what would the car next door blast every evening?

4. What was the name of a Rastaman Howard started meeting with at his weekly reasonings at Tafara Products in Chapter 22?

5. What poet did the Old Poet think Sinclair would read when she tired of Plath?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where did Sinclair send some of her poetry, and what happened after she sent them?

2. What was the house like that the Sinclairs lived in on Fifth Street?

3. How did Sinclair feel when she saw her father watching pornography?

4. What happened when Howard was beating Sinclair because she told her mother she did not like a pair of sneakers?

5. How did Sinclair and her siblings always have a lunch to eat at school?

6. How did Sinclair feel after Mrs. Newnham suggested she write down what she was feeling?

7. Why did Sinclair stay with her grandmother after meeting the Old Poet?

8. What happened when Sinclair and her siblings ate green cherries?

9. Who were some of Sinclair's classmates when she started seventh grade at St. James College?

10. What advice did Esther give Sinclair when the Old Poet fondled her at an award ceremony?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

After attending her grandmother’s church, Sinclair had doubts about her upbringing. Why did Sinclair begin to doubt what she was taught after attending her grandmother’s church?

Essay Topic 2

Setting is the place where a narrative takes place. Where did How to Say Babylon take place? How did Sinclair feel about the place and why?

Essay Topic 3

Sinclair struggled to fit in at St. James College. How and why did Sinclair struggle to fit in at St. James College?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 845 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample