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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through “The American Exception” .

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Smith says that despite America’s feelings of being untouchable, as the pandemic progressed, what did America appear to lead the world in?
(a) Vaccines.
(b) False positives.
(c) Unity.
(d) Deaths.

2. Who did people “thank God for” (16) after the pandemic when, Smith says, they were not seen as worthy of a $15/ hour minimum wage prior to the pandemic?
(a) Doctors.
(b) Essential Workers.
(c) Teachers.
(d) Bartenders.

3. Despite a pandemic’s ability to discriminate, says Smith, the structure of American hierarchy meant that which groups experience higher death rates?
(a) Blacks and Latinos.
(b) Whites and Asians.
(c) Blacks and whites.
(d) Asians and Latinos.

4. What does Smith say she believed to be the “cage of her circumstance” (3) when she was younger?
(a) Her race.
(b) Her sexual orientation.
(c) Her class.
(d) Her gender.

5. At which point does Smith say a man submits to nature?
(a) In death.
(b) In private.
(c) In old age.
(d) At birth.

Short Answer Questions

1. Though private interests play a role in the lives of many Americans, what private interest does Smith say should not be one of them?

2. 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)?

3. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that the poorer countries Trump condemned did not have the foresight to be what?

4. Nabokov said the inspiration for his novel came from an article about an ape that drew what?

5. What does Smith say has “rarely been random” in America in her essay “The American Exception”?

(see the answer key)

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