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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the little girl dreaming of in "To Be Somebody"?
(a) A baby grand piano.
(b) A dollhouse.
(c) A prince in a castle.
(d) A castle on a cloud.

2. What is the little boy dreaming of in "To Be Somebody"?
(a) Joe Louis's boxing gloves.
(b) Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves.
(c) Mike Tyson's boxing gloves.
(d) George Foreman's boxing gloves.

3. What in particular does the speaker need a dime for in "Down and Out"?
(a) To see a movie.
(b) Cleaning supplies.
(c) A beer.
(d) New shoes.

4. How many men are helping plan the parade in "Parade"?
(a) Thirteen.
(b) Five.
(c) Seventeen.
(d) Seven.

5. What is the one thing the fortune teller in "Ballad of the Fortune Teller" couldn't see?
(a) That her business was going to go bankrupt.
(b) Where her lover went.
(c) When she was going to die.
(d) That she was going to be robbed.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the speaker first attempt suicide in "Life Is Fine"?

2. How much older does the speaker like women in "Preference"?

3. Why is the speaker fired from his job in "Fired"?

4. What kind of diploma does the character in "Graduation" get?

5. What 2 places does the speaker go to in "Young Gal's Blues"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are men portrayed in the poems in "Lament Over Love"?

2. What historical figure might Madam Alberta K. Johnson be based upon?

3. How do the poems in "Life Is Fine" treat life's trials and tribulations?

4. What major themes are present in the poems included in "Montage of a Dream Deferred"?

5. What is the reader left to assume about how Madam makes money in the poems about her?

6. How does the speaker compare his relationship with the South and the North in "The South"?

7. What is the history of the word "mulatto," as evidenced in the poem of the same name?

8. What problem does the U.S. Census worker have with Madam in "Madam and the Census Man"?

9. Why do some of the women in the "Lament Over Love" section claim to still participate in bad relationships with men?

10. Which famous line of Langston Hughes is in "Harlem"?

(see the answer keys)

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