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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Morrison, what do readers and writers struggle to interpret?
(a) Character traits like anger.
(b) Imagined worlds.
(c) Excitement and happiness.
(d) Dialogue.

2. What does Morrison wonder most about Cardinal?
(a) Why she wrote a book.
(b) When she knew she was in trouble.
(c) Why she went to a Louis Armstrong concert.
(d) When she felt she had to panic.

3. Who does the main female character in Sapphira and the Slave Girl demand power over?
(a) Her slaves.
(b) Society.
(c) Men.
(d) Children.

4. What does Morrison determine is the cause of Nancy's mother's lack of maternal love?
(a) Her hair color.
(b) Her kindness.
(c) Her personality.
(d) Her skin color.

5. Who gave the lectures that Morrison bases Playing in the Dark on?
(a) Westley Morford.
(b) William Massey.
(c) Willard Mast.
(d) Wexley Moth.

6. In what role does Morrison see the subject of a dream?
(a) Reader.
(b) Artist.
(c) Black woman.
(d) Writer.

7. What does Morrison reflect on the consequences of in the preface?
(a) Classic literature.
(b) Modern music.
(c) Jazz music.
(d) Contemporary novels.

8. Where does Morrison teach?
(a) Brown.
(b) UCLA.
(c) Harvard.
(d) Princeton.

9. Who is Sapphira jealous of?
(a) Her daughter.
(b) Her mother.
(c) Her sister.
(d) Her slave.

10. Which of the dichotomies is shown in the example of a slave woman being kind to her mistress's children but her own mother is not good to her?
(a) Sinful but enticing.
(b) Benevolent and wicked.
(c) Pure and restrained.
(d) Angry and resentful.

11. Which of the following words does Morrison use to describe writers?
(a) Telling.
(b) Angry.
(c) Lustrious.
(d) Probing.

12. Who is the author of the quote from Preludes IV?
(a) John Steinbeck.
(b) William Shakespeare.
(c) Virginia Woolf.
(d) T.S. Eliot.

13. Which of the following does Morrison acknowledge?
(a) That each writer tries to avoid writing about race.
(b) That each reader is looking for something different.
(c) That each reader reads differently.
(d) That each author is biased.

14. What does Morrison say produces work?
(a) Imagination.
(b) Relaxation.
(c) Stress.
(d) Perseverance.

15. What is the opposite of restrained in the dichotomy present in Morrison's book?
(a) Anger.
(b) Benevolent.
(c) Pure.
(d) Wicked.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Morrison start a file to document?

2. How many pages into The Words to Say It does "the thing" happen?

3. Which of the following elements of racism does Morrison say studies of racism focus on?

4. What two things does Morrison claim not to be extremely distinct for a writer?

5. What is "the Thing"?

(see the answer keys)

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