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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Charlie Christian play when he was a young child?
(a) Cigar box banjo.
(b) Plastic trumpet.
(c) Oil drum.
(d) Tin fiddle.

2. Where is Ellison living in the essay "Living with Music?"
(a) Tiny ground floor rear apartment.
(b) Vermont barn.
(c) Across from the Manhattan School of Music.
(d) Cabin on board ship.

3. What is the final grade Jackson finished in school?
(a) Graduate degree in music.
(b) Freshman in college.
(c) 8th.
(d) 3rd.

4. How does Ellison define the "understanding of art?"
(a) Depending upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity.
(b) It is not to be understood, only felt.
(c) Created by the whims of the culture at the time.
(d) Limited to a very few elite patrons.

5. Where is the Lafargue Psychiatric Clinic?
(a) Biloxi.
(b) Lafargue.
(c) Brooklyn.
(d) Harlem.

6. Who says Negro dock workers were the best singers of Irish songs?
(a) Paul Oliver.
(b) Lafcadio Hearn.
(c) Constance Rourke.
(d) Stanley Hyman.

7. How did Mrs. Jackson's nephew William die?
(a) Drugs and alcohol.
(b) Suicide.
(c) Submarine torpedoes sank the ship he was working on.
(d) Hit by enemy fire during a battle in France.

8. What does Ellison say slaves had in place of freedom?
(a) Early death, disease, drunkenness.
(b) Blues, spirituals, jazz.
(c) Suffering, despair, darkness.
(d) Dementia, mental illness, emptiness.

9. What is Minton's Playhouse?
(a) Broadway theater.
(b) Day Care Center.
(c) Historic Jazz Club.
(d) Restaurant.

10. What is the "Act" Ellison refers to in the title of both the essay and the book?
(a) Violence.
(b) Reality.
(c) Hatred.
(d) Cruelty.

11. What childhood memory does Ellison draw on to deal with his artistic nemesis?
(a) His father's death.
(b) Falling off a large statue.
(c) Learning to play the trumpet.
(d) Being forced to kneel and pray at church.

12. Who are the two main characters in "Intruder in the Dust?"
(a) Mark Marroni and Leroy Belvadon.
(b) William Faulkner and Maria Sothington.
(c) Chick Mallison and Lucas Beauchamp.
(d) Joe and Mal.

13. What is the first book Ellison ever reviews in a publication?
(a) E. Waters Turpin's "These Low Grounds."
(b) James Baldwin's "Protest Novel."
(c) Richard Wright's "Amazing Grace."
(d) John Joseph's "Ain't no way out."

14. Who interviews Ellison in "The Art of Fiction?"
(a) Gertrude Whittall and T. S. Eliot.
(b) John Jacob & Nancy Kerry.
(c) Alfred Chester & Vilma Howard.
(d) Donald Gibson and Bob Edwards.

15. What kind of bird does Ellison say Parker is?
(a) Haunting Vulture.
(b) Silly Turkey.
(c) Sad Crow.
(d) Poor Robin.

Short Answer Questions

1. What year are the African slaves introduced into the American Colonies?

2. Who painted the mural that is displayed above Minton's bandstand?

3. Who lives on the left of Ellison?

4. What do the blues capture?

5. Who is LeRoi Jones?

(see the answer keys)

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