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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. After the pandemic, Smith says we must modify our new knowledge of privilege to involve what new category?
(a) Vaccination.
(b) Suffering.
(c) Excessive screen time.
(d) Isolation.

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

4. The moment Smith realized that she had misunderstood the conversation between the women in the Subway shop was the moment Smith says she became aware of her what?
(a) Isolation.
(b) Hearing problems.
(c) Nosiness.
(d) Privilege.

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

6. 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 praying.
(c) He is soaked in blood.
(d) He is on a cross.

7. What does Smith say in “Suffering Like Mel Gibson” was the only relief people quarantining together had from one another?
(a) Pretending to go to the bathroom.
(b) Pretending to be asleep.
(c) Hiding in a closet.
(d) The computer screen.

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

9. At the start of “Suffering Like Mel Gibson,” which type of person does Smith say dreamed of an “isolation within isolation” (29) at the start of the pandemic?
(a) Married couples with children.
(b) Grandparents.
(c) Roommates.
(d) Dating couples.

10. Who is the author of the essay “Peonies”?
(a) Zinnia Smith.
(b) Zadie Smith.
(c) Zora Smith.
(d) Zelda Smith.

11. 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) Doctors.
(c) Cheating spouses.
(d) Essential workers.

12. What is the title of the fourth essay is Zadie Smith’s collection Intimations?
(a) A Conversation between Jesus and Mel Gibson.
(b) Suffering like Jesus.
(c) Suffering like Mel Gibson.
(d) A Conversation with Jesus.

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

14. What purported purpose of art does Smith say is usually overstated in her essay “Something to Do”?
(a) Its political efficacy.
(b) Its fundraising abilities.
(c) Its aesthetic value.
(d) Offer financial security to the artist.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Which writer does Smith quote in her essay “Something to Do”?

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

4. Though the “bubble” of privilege can be penetrated, what bubble does Smith say cannot be penetrated?

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

(see the answer keys)

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