View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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.

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

3. Though the “bubble” of privilege can be penetrated, what bubble does Smith say cannot be penetrated?
(a) Suffering.
(b) Self-hate.
(c) Isolation.
(d) Inadequate education.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Which actor is in the director’s chair talking to Jesus in the meme someone sent Smith at the start of the pandemic?

3. What is one thing Smith says that wealthy people would not do if suffering were relative?

4. “Truly laboring people,” Smith says, have to adhere to this, to which an artist does not have to adhere?

5. What type of person does Smith say has created some of the most powerful art she has seen?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the meme Smith references in “Suffering Like Mel Gibson.”

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

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

4. What does Smith say was missing from the American concept of death in “The American Exception”?

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

6. What is Smith doing at the very start of “Peonies’?

7. What does Smith compare the way in which she packs her free time to at the start of “Peonies’?

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

9. What does Smith say she does not need “a Freudian” to tell her regarding herself and the two other women her age staring at the tulips in Jefferson Market Garden?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 704 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample