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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through “Suffering Like Mel Gibson” .

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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.

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

3. Though private interests play a role in the lives of many Americans, what private interest does Smith say should not be one of them?
(a) Education.
(b) Healthcare.
(c) The Postal system.
(d) Social security.

4. 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) Sadness.
(c) Fertility.
(d) Opportunity.

5. What is one of the social issues Smith said that pandemic forced many to have to face in her essay “Something to Do”?
(a) Bad marriages.
(b) Lack of sick leave.
(c) Unloving parents.
(d) Low minimum wage.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what city does Smith live at the start of “Peonies”?

2. What does Smith say is the truest, most obvious reason why people write or make art?

3. In “Suffering Like Mel Gibson” Smith says that class can alter what?

4. Smith says that despite America’s feelings of being untouchable, as the pandemic progressed, what did America appear to lead the world in?

5. In “Something to Do,” Smith says that without love life can seem what?

(see the answer key)

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