1. In “Suffering Like Mel Gibson” Smith discusses an article she read about a 17-year-old who committed suicide during the pandemic for what reason?
(a) She did not have access to the internet from home.
(b) She could not stand Zoom meetings.
(c) She could not see her friends.
(d) She did not get enough likes on social media.

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

3. What does Smith say writers often write about at some point in their careers at the start of “Something to Do”?
(a) Writer’s block.
(b) The health benefits of writing.
(c) How to write.
(d) Why they write.

4. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that Americans attacked death as a series of what?
(a) Unfortunate events.
(b) Bad decisions.
(c) Discrete problems.
(d) Mysteries.

5. 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 gender.
(d) Her class.

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

2. What does Smith say “demanded a new dawn” (11)?

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

4. What flowers does Smith wish she was looking at instead of peonies?

5. What does Trump say we did not have prior to the pandemic, which Smith agrees?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 264 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)

View a FREE sample