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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Smith say writers often write about at some point in their careers at the start of “Something to Do”?

2. What date was the speech Smith references at the start of “The American Exception”?

3. After the pandemic, Smith says we must modify our new knowledge of privilege to involve what new category?

4. What is the title of the second essay in Zadie’s Smith’s collection, Intimations?

5. What is the setting at the start of “Peonies”?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Smith say is the only relief people in lockdown have from one another?

3. What are some of the various types of loneliness Smith describes people felt at the start of the lockdown in “Suffering Like Mel Gibson”?

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

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

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

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

8. What does Smith say about love in “Something to Do”?

9. What does Smith say the country had begun to learn or discuss in regards to privilege prior to the virus?

10. What are some of the “special words....lurking on the horizon” (4) for women her age that Smith describes in “Peonies”?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay expounding on the theme of contempt in “Post-script: Contempt as a Virus.” Include the examples of both British and American forms of contempt Smith describes.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing the theme of crime and punishment in “A Provocation in the Park.” What are Smtih’s thoughts on the subject and how are her thoughts bolstered or challenged by events in the essay?

Essay Topic 3

Smith experiences personal changes throughout the collection. In what ways does Smith change and in what ways does she remain the same? How do these changes develop the themes of Intimations?

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