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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What flowers does Smith wish she was looking at instead of peonies?
(a) Lupines.
(b) Daffodils.
(c) Tulips.
(d) Roses.

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

5. What does Smith say writers often write about at some point in their careers at the start of “Something to Do”?
(a) Writer’s block.
(b) Why they write.
(c) The health benefits of writing.
(d) How to write.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Smith say a man can bend to his will?

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

3. Smith refers to the space of time that artists usually occupy as a “charming but useless” what?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

1. How do “defenders of art typically justify its existence” (21) according to Smith?

2. Despite a plague's inability to discriminate, Smith says what about the structure of America’s hierarchy?

3. Why does Smith say it was hard for Americans to fathom a plague?

4. How does Smith describe the space typically occupied by artists?

5. What does Smith says is the true reason writers write when most else is “stripped away” (20)?

6. What does Smith say that artists learned in regards to privacy and time at the start of “Suffering Like Mel Gibson”?

7. Describe the moment Smith realized her own privilege in a Subway shop.

8. How does Smith describe the similarity and difference between privilege and suffering in “Suffering Like Mel Gibson”?

9. In “The American Exception” Smith says that Americans attack death as what?

10. Whose speech does “The American Exception” begin with and what it is in regards to?

(see the answer keys)

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