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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Ryan compare the area where he and Valerie move in Chapter 11 to?
(a) An ocean.
(b) A crevasse.
(c) A mountain.
(d) A river.

2. Why does Adrian leave the home he was sharing with Valerie and Ryan in Chapter 9?
(a) He has to go away for college.
(b) He finds a new girlfriend and leaves to live with her.
(c) He is selling drugs.
(d) He gets angry and puts his fists through the wall of the house.

3. Which group barred Marian Anderson from singing at Constitution Hall in Washington DC in 1939?
(a) The Daughters of the American Revolution.
(b) Unite the Right.
(c) The Girls Scouts of America.
(d) The KKK.

4. What does Greg, Ryan's half-brother, tell him about Cecil?
(a) That Cecil had not really wanted to marry Lonna.
(b) That Cecil had told Greg he hoped Ryan would forgive him for not being there as Ryan grew up.
(c) That Cecil had money he wanted Ryan to have.
(d) That Cecil had not believed Ryan was his biological son.

5. Where does Ryan get accepted to and attend college?
(a) The University of Pennsylvania.
(b) The University of Hartford.
(c) Oberlin.
(d) The University of Scranton.

6. What famous legend did the story in Wanger's Parsifal draw on?
(a) Beowulf.
(b) King Arthur.
(c) Oedipus.
(d) Odysseus.

7. What does Ryan's grandmother, who is suffering from dementia in Chapter 10, call him?
(a) Honey.
(b) Boo-Bear.
(c) Genius.
(d) Little Ry.

8. Where does Ryan's mother take him for his birthday in Chapter 10?
(a) Hooters.
(b) The Met.
(c) A shooting range.
(d) The Tilted Kilt.

9. What sport do both Ryan and Adrian play in high school?
(a) Tennis.
(b) Soccer.
(c) Football.
(d) Squash.

10. What does Ryan's new Italian coach keep in his pocket?
(a) A picture of his daughter.
(b) A drawing of the surfaces of the bones in the head.
(c) A note from his mother.
(d) A precious ring.

11. What was Ryan's second role in a Met opera?
(a) A part in Madame Butterfly.
(b) A part in Don Giovanni.
(c) A part in Othello.
(d) A part in Parsifal.

12. Which television show does Ryan find solace and meaning in after he is released from the DeJarnette Center?
(a) Family Ties.
(b) Seinfeld.
(c) The Wire.
(d) ER.

13. Where did Mr. Brown take Ryan to buy clothes sometimes?
(a) Kmart.
(b) Nordstrom's.
(c) Walmart.
(d) Lord and Taylor.

14. Which is the song Ryan received the most applause from an audience for, ever?
(a) Ol' Man River.
(b) Dixie.
(c) Can't Stop That Feeling.
(d) Ragtime.

15. Which family members of Ryan's were in the audience to hear him sing in his first opera a the Met on opening night?
(a) Adrian.
(b) Aunt Esther.
(c) No one.
(d) Cecil and Valerie.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following songs does Ryan sing for his audition for the Virginia Governor's School for the Arts?

2. Where does Valerie move herself and Ryan after leaving the trailer park in Chapter 11?

3. What happens when Ryan gets onstage for the first time in the Governor's School production of The Ballad of Baby Doe?

4. Who invited Marian Anderson to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after she was barred from singing at Constitution Hall?

5. Which musical does Ryan perform in in high school that makes his mother weep in the audience?

(see the answer keys)

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