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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 is the name of the cook who occasionally throws meat against the wall during his shift?

2. At the ____________, the interviewer Barbara meets warns her about labor organizers, to avoid them.

3. Having spend her life with ____________ struggling people, the author is not happy about getting the assignment.

4. How long do Carlie and Barbara work before they take a break from their housekeeping work?

5. What does Barbara not want to mention when she is out in her new working life?

Short Essay Questions

1. How much does Barbara think she will have to make in order to pay her rent and for food during her stay in Florida?

2. What is Barbara's fear about working in the area where she currently lives, Key West?

3. What does Barbara feel she is compelled to do with the patrons at Hearthside, where she works as a waitress?

4. What does the bad tempered cook like to do sometimes back in the kitchen, according to Barbara?

5. What will Barbara not rely on in order to get a job and to support herself, as one of the rules of her experiment?

6. Describe the first apartment that Barbara finds when she is out looking for her first new 'home' for the assignment.

7. What do the managers do to Barbara when she is an employee at Hearthside, she realizes as she continues to work there?

8. What happens if Barbara thinks she will have to go homeless, even for one night during this experiment?

9. What are some of the other reasons why Barbara doesn't really want to take on the assignment of working for minimum wage?

10. Once Barbara begins to let go of her elitist attitude, what does she realize about the workers around her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

While at times it seems that coworkers band together to help each other out, at other times, they treat each other as though they were unaware of the other's existence.

Part 1: Why do you think coworkers band together at some points of a minimum wage job?

Part 2: Why do you think coworkers can also turn their backs on their coworkers so easily?

Part 3: Do you think the management tries to influence the bonds between coworkers? If so, why? If not, why not?

Essay Topic 2

It seems that the odds are against those who are in minimum wage jobs. From the costs of housing to the way these workers are often not paid well, it seems the cycle of poverty may never end.

Part 1: Why do you think minimum wage workers can not get ahead in their lives?

Part 2: Do you think outside influences are the main reasons why people can not lift themselves from poverty? Why or why not?

Part 3: Do you think society willfully creates conditions in which minimum wage workers can not succeed? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Barbara begins to recognize that her thinking is shifting when she becomes upset over the littlest things.

Part 1: Why do you think Barbara is beginning to get upset over the littlest things are her jobs?

Part 2: In what ways do some of the places of employment try to make the employees feel responsible for their work?

Part 3: Do you think it's healthy for an employee to become stressed out about the work they have done? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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