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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is one thing Smith says that wealthy people would not do if suffering were relative?
(a) Buy so many things.
(b) Seek therapy.
(c) Commit suicide.
(d) Work.

2. 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 could not stand Zoom meetings.
(b) She did not get enough likes on social media.
(c) She could not see her friends.
(d) She did not have access to the internet from home.

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

4. What does Smith say has “rarely been random” in America in her essay “The American Exception”?
(a) COVID-19 cases.
(b) COVID-19 recoveries.
(c) Presidential nominations.
(d) Untimely death.

5. What is one of the ways in which Smith said she had tried to resist her own nature?
(a) By speaking with a fake accent.
(b) By not keeping track of her menstrual cycles.
(c) By wearing fake nails.
(d) By dying her gray hair.

6. In “Suffering Like Mel Gibson,” Smith says that suffering “is not relative; it is” (34) what?
(a) Absolute.
(b) A waste of time.
(c) Necessary.
(d) Imaginary.

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

8. Who were the few people, according to Smith, who did not have to “seek out something to do” during the pandemic?
(a) Essential workers.
(b) Gamers.
(c) Writers.
(d) Painters.

9. What type of person does Smith say has created some of the most powerful art she has seen?
(a) People who have no contact with the outside world.
(b) People who constantly strive for perfection.
(c) People who endlessly engage with their subjects.
(d) People who feel completely alone in the world.

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

11. The day Smith looked at the peonies in the Jefferson Market Garden was just a few days before what Smith refers to as what?
(a) The Worldwide Humbling.
(b) The Global Fumbling.
(c) The Global Submission.
(d) The Global Humbling.

12. Which type of person does Smith describe as being shuffled “from one isolation to another and back again” (30)?
(a) Doctors.
(b) Cheating spouses.
(c) Essential workers.
(d) Children of divorced parents.

13. 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.

14. What does Smith say a man can bend to his will?
(a) Nature.
(b) Rules.
(c) Religion.
(d) Steel pipes.

15. What former British Prime Minister does Smith reference at the end of “The American Exception”?
(a) Margaret Thatcher.
(b) Winston Churchill.
(c) Tony Blair.
(d) Neville Chamberlain.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the term Smith says reflects her resistance to the nature of her gender?

2. In the conversation Smith overhears at a Subway shop, Smith learns that the two women conversing are more appalled by what factor, than that the child is too young for technology?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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