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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 Third World Student Movement?

2. What is Rodriguez aware of when he visits his rich friends?

3. What term does Rodriguez's mother ask him to explain?

4. What example does Rodriguez offer of a program that can help minority students?

5. What does Rodriguez think about how the meaning of a person's complexion has changed?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Rodriguez describe the change in the Catholic Church that happens as he grows up?

2. How do Rodriguez's ideas about religion change as he grows up? How does his practice of religion change?

3. How does Rodriguez feel about writing? How does he feel about writing about his family? How has he handled it in the past? How is he handling it now?

4. What does Rodriguez's mother tell him about writing about their family? What does his editor tell him?

5. How does Rodriguez describe his mother's interaction with the public world? Give specific examples.

6. What are Rodriguez's parents' ideas about masculine and feminine characteristics? How does that affect Rodriguez?

7. What does Rodriguez think about the Civil Rights Movement?

8. How does Rodriguez explain psychiatry to his mother? Does she understand? Why or why not? How does that discussion connect to his book and what he is willing to tell her about the book?

9. How does Rodriguez feel about white students' attitudes toward affirmative action?

10. What does Rodriguez think about the current system of affirmative action? Give two examples he uses to support his argument.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Part One: Compare and contrast the two religions - Mexican Catholicism and English-speaking Catholicism - that Rodriguez experiences as a child.

Part Two: Which one had a more profound effect on him as he grew up?

Part Three: Does his "New Catholicism" look more like Mexican Catholicism, English-speaking Catholicism, or an equal blend of the two?

Essay Topic 2

Rodriguez claims that it is his education that made him successful. That is the reason he is writing this history of his education.

Part One: Find examples that prove his point. How is the person he is today a result of getting a good education?

Part Two: Find examples that disprove his point. What other advantages does he have (for example, where he lives, people he knows, personal characteristics) that could have led him to be successful even without a great education?

Part Three: Decide for yourself -- did Rodriguez's education make him successful? Explain your reasoning.

Essay Topic 3

Rodriguez's attitude about complexion was affected by the "Black is Beautiful" movement. This movement preached that people should accept themselves for who they are rather than trying to match a specific idealized image. At that time, the idealized image was inevitably the image of a white person, which made it difficult for non-whites to see themselves as beautiful.

Part One: What was Rodriguez's attitude about his complexion as a child? What did the people around him say about his complexion?

Part Two: Besides the "Black is Beautiful" movement, what other things changed Rodriguez's attitude about his complexion? How did his attitude change? What do the people around him say about his skin color now that he is an adult?

(see the answer keys)

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