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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the unique word Ryan's voice teacher uses to help him during his training?

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

3. What is Ken Noda's ethnic background?

4. Who runs the Met's Lindemann training program?

5. Which teacher at Governor's School takes Ryan under his wing and helps turn him into a very good singer?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. In Chapter 13, why is Ryan afraid he may become like the singer Terrence Coleman?

4. Why does Ryan's brother Adrian leave home?

5. 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?

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

7. What surprises Noda about Ryan's level of skill when he first starts working with Ryan?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ken Noda, the child prodigy on piano turned professional accompanist, describes how his difficult relationship with his mother affected his life and career. Write an essay comparing and contrasting how Noda's and Ryan's problems with their mothers impacted their lives and careers.

Essay Topic 2

Ryan's family is perplexed when they realize he is serious about studying opera, to the point that his aunt Esther says "Isn't that a white thing?" (118). Write an essay analyzing the reasons Bergner puts forward explaining why black opera singers are still facing a more difficult road in building successful careers at the highest levels of opera.

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 11, When Valerie and Ryan move to the small green shack across from the drug dealers' house, just outside of Norfolk, Virginia, Valerie navigates their dangerous new situation with enough skill so that no harm comes to either of them. Later, Ryan finds it hard to reconcile his mother's failing health with the person she was when she went up against the drug dealers. Write an essay analyzing the conflicting feelings Ryan seems to have about his relationship with his mother at the end of the book.

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