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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 doctor's office and the hospital.
(b) The graveyard and the poor house.
(c) The post office and the grocery store.
(d) The beauty shop and the nail salon.

2. In "Little Old Letter," the speaker claims never to have been so lonely since when?
(a) Since she found out she was adopted.
(b) Since she was first left with a babysitter.
(c) Since she first moved out on her own.
(d) Since she was born black.

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

4. What is Madam's full name?
(a) Madam Sophia Sandra Jackson.
(b) Miss Julianna Iasha Elliot.
(c) This is a trick question; she only goes by Madam.
(d) Madam Alberta K. Johnson.

5. How large is the house that Madam has to clean in "Madam and Her Madam"?
(a) One room.
(b) Five rooms plus a spare apartment.
(c) Twelve rooms.
(d) This is a trick question; there is no house mentioned in this poem.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the speaker in "To Be Somebody," where is there always room?

2. How much of his paycheck does the character's buddy have to give to his mother?

3. What does the speaker in "Down and Out" want from her lover?

4. What in particular does the speaker need a dime for in "Down and Out"?

5. What does the speaker in "Little Old Letter" claim pen and paper have the power to do?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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