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

2. Where does Valerie move herself and Ryan after leaving the trailer park in Chapter 11?
(a) To a homeless shelter in Virginia.
(b) To a little green shack outside of Norfolk.
(c) To a low-income high-rise in Brooklyn.
(d) In with relatives until she gets back on her feet.

3. Where does Ryan travel for his father's funeral?
(a) Bakersfield, California.
(b) San Francisco, California.
(c) Sioux City, Iowa.
(d) Norfolk, Virginia.

4. Why does Ryan run after the young man who uses a racial slur to describe Obama?
(a) He plans to beat the man.
(b) He is angry and wants to talk to the man.
(c) He wants to find out where the man lives so he can report him to the college the man attends.
(d) He plans to lead the police to the man.

5. Where does Ryan attend graduate school?
(a) Eastman School of Music.
(b) Florida State University.
(c) Columbia University.
(d) Carnegie Mellon.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year did Marian Anderson sing at the Met for the first time?

2. Who is the legendary conductor at the Met who is involved in selecting singers for the Met's special training program?

3. What city was Ryan in on November 4, 2008, the night Barack Obama was elected president of the United States?

4. What does Cecil do for Ryan's colleagues after they perform in Chapter 12?

5. Who is the white student Ryan befriends in school and whose family Ryan spends a great deal of time with?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the child piano prodigy Ken Noda abruptly stop performing piano concerts?

2. What was wrong with the area that Valerie and Ryan move to, the little green shack, in a town outside of Norfolk?

3. When does Ryan first settle on the idea that he would like to sing at the Met someday?

4. Why does Ryan join the Latin club and deliberately start making friends with white students in school when he is released from the juvenile detention center?

5. What does Brian Zeger, who runs the Met's training program, say is the real strength of Ryan's voice?

6. Why does Mr. Brown experience conflicted feelings about religion?

7. In Chapter 11, how does Ryan's budding relationship with the red-headed soprano work out?

8. In Chapter 9, what effect does the black opera singer Eric Owens say race has on the career of opera singers?

9. Why did the famous opera singer Marian Anderson perform a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939?

10. How does Gayletha Nichols describes Ryan's appeal to other people in Chapter 14?

(see the answer keys)

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