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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 2 places does the speaker go to in "Young Gal's Blues"?
(a) The beauty shop and the nail salon.
(b) The graveyard and the poor house.
(c) The doctor's office and the hospital.
(d) The post office and the grocery store.

2. Where is Miss Gardner in "Southern Mammy Sings"?
(a) In her yard.
(b) At mass.
(c) In her garden.
(d) At a funeral.

3. What does the speaker in "Down and Out" want from her lover?
(a) Kisses.
(b) Money.
(c) A new car.
(d) New shoes.

4. Where does the fortune teller tell Madam her fortune is in "Madam and the Fortune Teller"?
(a) Inside herself.
(b) With her boyfriend.
(c) In Atlanta.
(d) In Vegas.

5. What caused Madam to abandon her barbecue stand?
(a) A fire from her huge barbecue pit.
(b) Bankruptcy.
(c) She just got bored and tired with it.
(d) Being mixed up with a no-good man.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which color hands are NOT mentioned in "Daybreak in Alabama"?

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

3. Why is the boy lynched in "Southern Mammy Sings"?

4. What does the speaker in "Mother to Son" claim her life has NOT been?

5. Why does Madam have a large phone bill in "Madam and the Phone Bill"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does the speaker in "Hard Daddy" want to be an eagle?

3. What do both "Still Here" and "Me and the Mule" celebrate?

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

5. What theme unites the poems in "Name in Uphill Letters"?

6. What is the speaker talking about in "Note on Commercial Theater"?

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

8. How does Madam prefer to handle her suitors?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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