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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Lincoln borrow a neighbor's baby?
(a) To comfort him after the death of a loved one.
(b) To find out more about what the children of America need.
(c) To pace with while he is thinking.
(d) To use in a play that is being put on at the local school.

2. Why does Williams feel that women especially appreciated Burr?
(a) Burr was extremely handsome and dashing.
(b) Burr treated women with respect and wanted them to be free.
(c) Burr was well-educated and had a distinguished military record.
(d) Burr did not care about religion.

3. Why does John Paul Jones write to Benjamin Franklin in "Battle Between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis"?
(a) To explain the outcome of a recent battle.
(b) To explain how ships could be better maintained so that they are more resistant to fires.
(c) To explain why he feels that naval policy should be changed.
(d) To explain the circumstances leading up to the loss of a ship.

4. What does Williams say that Americans think they will lose if they were ever to serve another person?
(a) Faith.
(b) Independence.
(c) Arrogance.
(d) Self-esteem.

5. What does the "Poor Richard" narrator say is a common misconception that Europeans have about America?
(a) They can move there and quickly be elected to political office.
(b) Americans place a high value on leisure time and do not like to work.
(c) It is a dangerous place because there are so many Indian raids.
(d) It is very hard to earn a living by farming in America.

6. What event has distracted historians from telling the whole story about Burr?
(a) The American Revolution.
(b) Shea's rebellion.
(c) The French and Indian War.
(d) The duel with Alexander Hamilton.

7. Which of the following adjectives best describes the narrator's experience of Paris?
(a) Disorienting.
(b) Disquieting.
(c) Productive.
(d) Peaceful.

8. What part of Poe's reputation does Williams say is undeserved?
(a) His reputation for criticizing other writers.
(b) His reputation for eccentricity.
(c) His reputation for the strange and macabre.
(d) His reputation for poetic braggadocio.

9. What does Poe call Longfellow?
(a) A thief.
(b) An ignoramus.
(c) A plagiarist.
(d) A shyster.

10. What happens to Pere Rasles?
(a) He is killed by the Abnaki.
(b) He is assassinated by the English.
(c) He is killed by enemies of the Abnaki.
(d) He dies peacefully of old age.

11. What event in Poe's life trapped him in his poetry?
(a) The destruction of his home.
(b) The birth of his child.
(c) The death of his wife.
(d) The end of the war.

12. What makes Daniel Boone different from other settlers, according to the narrator?
(a) He is not afraid to go west into the wilderness.
(b) He does not consider himself an American citizen.
(c) He started new communities wherever he went.
(d) He is at war with the Indians he met.

13. What does Williams say that Africans came enslaved from Africa for?
(a) Nothing.
(b) Racism.
(c) Hope.
(d) Agriculture.

14. What warning does Williams give the reader about history at the beginning of "The Virtue of History"?
(a) History is often bound by prejudice.
(b) History never tells the truth.
(c) History is written by the victors.
(d) History never lies.

15. What does Williams compare the various incidents of Lincoln's life to?
(a) Instruments playing in an orchestra.
(b) Dancers doing a series of intricately choreographed steps.
(c) Ridges of a sculpture that should be made of Lincoln.
(d) Lines in a carefully crafted poem.

Short Answer Questions

1. What state does Houston become Governor of, and later serve as a U.S. Senator from?

2. When does Houston defeat Santa Ana?

3. What reason does the narrator give for believing that Americans have trouble understanding their own national character?

4. How does the narrator say that Puritans viewed the Indian?

5. What does Jacataqua ask Aaron Burr to do?

(see the answer keys)

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