View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to the speaker in "To Be Somebody," where is there always room?
(a) In dreams.
(b) In one's own mind.
(c) At the top.
(d) In another's heart.

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

3. What does the speaker hope for her child in the poem "Lament over Love"?
(a) That he or she will stop being so bratty all the time.
(b) That he or she will go to college.
(c) That he or she will not grow up to be poor.
(d) The he or she will never love a man.

4. How does Madam want her name printed in "Madam's Calling Cards"?
(a) In Italian.
(b) In "Roman."
(c) In "American."
(d) In "Old English."

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What would the speaker in "Young Gal's Blues" rather be dead than?

3. Where is Miss Michaelmas in "Southern Mammy Sings"?

4. What question does the number runner ask Madam in "Madam and the Number Writer"?

5. What does the speaker in "Cross" take back in regard to his father?

Short Essay Questions

1. What comparison is made in "Me and the Mule"?

2. What does the stereotype of the poem "Uncle Tom" tap into?

3. What one notable thing does the poem "Daybreak" address in the "Magnolia Flowers" section that the others do not?

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

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

6. What is the commonality between all of the poems in "Lament Over Love"?

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

8. Why does the speaker in "Third Degree" confess to police?

9. How does Madam prefer to handle her suitors?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 823 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample