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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. When Walmart announced raising the hourly wage to $15 in 2021, by what percent did their stock fall?

2. Where did Desmond go to graduate school?

3. During Ronald Reagan's presidency, by what percent did the aid reserved for American who fell below a certain income level increase?

4. How old was Julio Payes when he collapsed from exhaustion in the aisle of a grocery store?

5. When did air traffic controllers strike when negotiations with the Federal Aviation Administration broke down?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does race affect who lives in poverty and who does not?

2. Why did many people applying for Supplement Security Income (SSI) hire a lawyer?

3. Had poverty gotten worse because spending was reduced?

4. When Desmond went to college, how was his life different from the lives of many of his classmates?

5. How did many welfare policies have an antifamily design?

6. Why are there millions more Americans in poverty than official statistics reveal?

7. What happened when poor workers received a pay raise?

8. Why did Desmond write Poverty, By America?

9. Where did Desmond grow up?

10. Why and how did Desmond and his family learn to fix things themselves?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There were many ways the poor were exploited, especially when it came to the housing market. What were some different types of exploitation? How did exploitation affect the poor and their ability to get out of poverty?

Essay Topic 2

Desmond believed that poverty could be affected by racial disadvantages or privileges. How was poverty unequal, and how did race affect that inequality?

Essay Topic 3

Matthew Desmond was a sociologist and author. Why did he write Poverty, by America?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 867 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample