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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 dying her gray hair.
(c) By not keeping track of her menstrual cycles.
(d) By wearing fake nails.

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

3. 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) Nosiness.
(b) Privilege.
(c) Hearing problems.
(d) Isolation.

4. What does Smith say she believed to be the “cage of her circumstance” (3) when she was younger?
(a) Her gender.
(b) Her class.
(c) Her sexual orientation.
(d) Her race.

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

6. 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) Sadness.
(b) Opportunity.
(c) Holiness.
(d) Fertility.

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

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

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

10. Smith refers to the space of time that artists usually occupy as a “charming but useless” what?
(a) Reality.
(b) Playground.
(c) Existence.
(d) Playpen.

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

12. Which president’s speech does Smith cite at the start of “The American Exception”?
(a) Barack Obama.
(b) Donald Trump.
(c) Joe Biden.
(d) Bill Clinton.

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

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

15. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that nobody in 1945 wanted to go back to 1939 unless it was to do what?
(a) Vote for a different leader.
(b) Be younger.
(c) Resurrect the dead.
(d) Change the course of history.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Smith say are patronized by people of all ages?

2. Which philosopher does Smith cite when discussing the difference between the thinker and his real life?

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

4. What is the topic of conversation Smith overhears between two woman at a Subway shop in “Suffering Like Mel Gibson”?

5. At the end of “The American Exception,” what did Smith say states were forced to bid on during the pandemic?

(see the answer keys)

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