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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Sarny say is forbidden in the slaves' sleeping quarters in Chapter 3?
(a) Food.
(b) Light.
(c) Water.
(d) Beds.

2. Sarny says of Mammy in Chapter 2, "She swore they could hear like cats up to the big house..." What literary device is used in this example?
(a) Simile.
(b) Onomatopoeia.
(c) Alliteration.
(d) Allusion.

3. What does Sarny say that the slaves call the master and mistress when they are in the slave quarters and out of hearing in Chapter 2?
(a) Witches and warlocks.
(b) The kind and queen of the castle.
(c) Dog droppings or horse crap.
(d) The perpetrator of evil.

4. How old was Sarny when her birth mother was sold?
(a) 12.
(b) 6.
(c) 2.
(d) 4.

5. What does John cover in his first "lesson" with Sarny in Chapter 3?
(a) The question mark.
(b) The number 1.
(c) The letter A.
(d) The period.

6. What substance does Sarny equate the color of her skin with in Chapter 3?
(a) Coffee.
(b) Brown sugar.
(c) Sassafras tea.
(d) Molasses.

7. To whom does Mammy pray when Sarny witnesses her in Chapter 2?
(a) Saint Mary.
(b) Allah.
(c) The Great Buddha.
(d) Lord Jesus.

8. In what year did the United States Congress pass a Slave Trade Act which prohibited the building or outfitting of ships in the U.S. for use in the slave trade?
(a) 1865.
(b) 1826.
(c) 1794.
(d) 1739.

9. What kind of coin does Sarny describe finding in the dirt in Chapter 2?
(a) A nickel.
(b) A penny.
(c) A dime.
(d) A quarter.

10. What does Sarny remark about her birth in Chapter 1?
(a) She came out backwards.
(b) She was born deaf.
(c) She was born premature.
(d) She was born blind.

11. What does Sarny enjoy doing every evening after the slaves eat?
(a) Laying in bed thinking about what she's learned.
(b) Drawing pictures in the sand in the chicken shed.
(c) Singing songs that she learned in church.
(d) Playing a harmonica that she found in town.

12. What is Sarny doing when the master arrives with John in Chapter 3?
(a) Watering the flower garden.
(b) Changing the babies' diapers.
(c) Feeding the chickens.
(d) Cleaning the eating trough.

13. What substance does Sarny treat the flowers with in Chapter 2?
(a) Chemical pesticide.
(b) Bubblegum.
(c) Tobacco juice.
(d) Turpentine.

14. When did Pennsylvania pass legislation to end slavery?
(a) 1780.
(b) 1865.
(c) 1799.
(d) 1885.

15. What word used in Chapter 3 refers to the process of preparing corn for eating?
(a) Relegating.
(b) Parboiling.
(c) Spindling.
(d) Shucking.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Sarny recall Mammy telling her to do with the coin that she found in the dirt in Chapter 2?

2. What does Sarny say they pour down the trough in the mornings for the slaves in Chapter 3?

3. What major theme of the novel emerges in Chapter 3?

4. When did the U.S. Congress outlaw the importation of slaves?

5. What term refers to efforts toward procuring economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchised group?

(see the answer keys)

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