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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through “Something To Do” .

Multiple Choice Questions

1. As Smith stares into the garden of peonies near two other women her age, Smiths comments of what “gaudy symbol,” the flowers represent, “in the middle of a barren concrete metropolis” (3)?
(a) Holiness.
(b) Fertility.
(c) Opportunity.
(d) Sadness.

2. What “obsession” (6) does Smith liken to her resistance to nature as a youth, an obsessions she says many writers share?
(a) Chaos.
(b) Control.
(c) Materialism.
(d) Order.

3. Smith thinks that one reason Americans cannot fathom plagues is because they do not discriminate based on what?
(a) Gender.
(b) Wealth.
(c) Skin color.
(d) Zip code.

4. In “Something to Do,” Smith says that without love life can seem what?
(a) Empty and endless.
(b) Dark and depressing.
(c) Comical.
(d) Tragic.

5. At the end of “The American Exception,” what did Smith say states were forced to bid on during the pandemic?
(a) Laptops.
(b) Textbooks.
(c) Personal Protective Equipment.
(d) Houses.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which president’s speech does Smith cite at the start of “The American Exception”?

2. What former British Prime Minister does Smith reference at the end of “The American Exception”?

3. What is the setting at the start of “Peonies”?

4. Who were the few people, according to Smith, who did not have to “seek out something to do” during the pandemic?

5. While looking on at the garden, Smith thinks of a quote by Nabokov regarding his inspiration for which novel?

(see the answer key)

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