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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Smith say we had before the pandemic instead of death?
(a) Universal healthcare.
(b) Immortality.
(c) The flu.
(d) Casualties and victims.

2. Which philosopher does Smith cite when discussing the difference between the thinker and his real life?
(a) Socrates.
(b) Kierkagaard.
(c) Plato.
(d) Nietzsche.

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

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

5. What is the title of the second essay in Zadie’s Smith’s collection, Intimations?
(a) Intimations.
(b) Screengrabs.
(c) The American Exception.
(d) Peonies.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Smith say a man can bend to his will?

2. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that nobody in 1945 wanted to go back to 1939 unless it was to do what?

3. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that Americans attacked death as a series of what?

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

5. What song does Smith reflect on how the lyrics would change if it were written for a man?

(see the answer key)

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