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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that the poorer countries Trump condemned did not have the foresight to be what?
(a) Sweden.
(b) America.
(c) Iceland.
(d) Europe.

2. What is the title of the third story in Zadie Smith’s collection, Intimations?
(a) Something to Say.
(b) Something to Do.
(c) Something to write.
(d) How to fill time during a pandemic.

3. What is the setting at the start of “Peonies”?
(a) The New York Botanical Gardens.
(b) Jefferson Market Garden.
(c) The Brooklyn Gardens.
(d) The Manhattan Garden.

4. What example does Smith use in “Peonies” as a time when submitting might be better than resisting?
(a) Peer pressure.
(b) When your alarm clock goes off.
(c) Disease.
(d) Torture.

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) Unloving parents.
(c) Low minimum wage.
(d) Lack of sick leave.

6. Which actor is in the director’s chair talking to Jesus in the meme someone sent Smith at the start of the pandemic?
(a) Mel Gibson.
(b) Tom Hanks.
(c) Michael Douglass.
(d) Burt Reynolds.

7. What is the term Smith says reflects her resistance to the nature of her gender?
(a) Internalized misogyny.
(b) Internalized misanthropy.
(c) Externalized misogyny.
(d) Internalized misandry.

8. What does Smith say “demanded a new dawn” (11)?
(a) Americans.
(b) Disaster.
(c) Women.
(d) Night.

9. What two things does Smith say share in common their ability to distort one’s vision?
(a) Suffering and Endurance.
(b) Privilege and suffering.
(c) Privilege and disease.
(d) Suffering and starvation.

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

11. Which type of person does Smith say was overjoyed with the new free time at the start of the pandemic?
(a) Artists without children.
(b) People living alone in city apartments.
(c) Artists with children.
(d) Children of artists.

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

13. What is the topic of conversation Smith overhears between two woman at a Subway shop in “Suffering Like Mel Gibson”?
(a) Feminism.
(b) Higher Education.
(c) Technology and children.
(d) The economy.

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

15. What is different about Jesus versus the actor speaking to him in the meme Smith saw during the pandemic?
(a) He is kneeling.
(b) He is soaked in blood.
(c) He is on a cross.
(d) He is praying.

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

2. What former British Prime Minister does Smith reference at the end of “The American Exception”?

3. What term does Smith reference in “The American Exception” which Trump used in reference to other countries he saw as inferior?

4. What does Smith liken Trump’s speech to after coming to her senses after the first part of his speech?

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

(see the answer keys)

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