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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What word does the narrator use to describe Delia's thoughts about her garden?
(a) Bountiful.
(b) Beautiful.
(c) Serene.
(d) Lovely.

2. When Delia tells Sykes she is not in the mood for a fight because she has just come from a particular place, what is that place?
(a) The corner store.
(b) Church.
(c) Bertha's house.
(d) City Hall.

3. What day of the week is considered the Sabbath within traditional Christianity?
(a) Thursday.
(b) Sunday.
(c) Saturday.
(d) Friday.

4. Who lets a bullwhip fall onto Delia's shoulders in order to scare her?
(a) Joe.
(b) Bertha.
(c) Sykes.
(d) Dave.

5. Where does Sykes say he has been when Delia asks him where he has been with her horse and buckboard?
(a) At church.
(b) At the corner store.
(c) With Bertha.
(d) He does not say.

6. For how long is Delia unable to speak when she feels the bullwhip across her shoulders?
(a) Two minutes.
(b) Fifteen seconds.
(c) One minute.
(d) Thirty seconds.

7. What title does the narrator ascribe to Delia's job of doing other people's laundry?
(a) Wash-woman.
(b) Maid.
(c) Tailor.
(d) Laundress.

8. For how long has Delia been doing people's laundry to bring in money?
(a) 10 years.
(b) 20 years.
(c) 15 years.
(d) 7 years.

9. What does Delia tell Sykes will one day kill her?
(a) The heat of midsummer.
(b) Sykes' foolishness.
(c) Sykes' physical abuse.
(d) The physical labor of her job.

10. What verb does the narrator use to describe what Delia's pose in the kitchen does to Sykes?
(a) It cows him.
(b) It emasculates him.
(c) It angers him.
(d) It scares him.

11. What instruction does Sykes insist that he has given Delia over and over again without her capitulation?
(a) To keep white people's clothes out of the house.
(b) To keep the stove clean.
(c) To have his dinner ready when he gets home from work.
(d) To answer him when he asks her a question.

12. When Sykes declares how tired he is of Delia and leaves the house, what does he do on his way out?
(a) Bangs on the mailbox.
(b) Kicks the fence.
(c) Slams the back gate.
(d) Slams the front door.

13. What does Delia say she had brought to her marriage to Sykes?
(a) Faith.
(b) Optimism.
(c) Love.
(d) Commitment.

14. What does Delia call Sykes's action of scaring her with the bullwhip?
(a) A travesty.
(b) A joke.
(c) A sin.
(d) An injustice.

15. What adjective does Sykes use to describe Delia just before he steps into the room where she is sorting laundry?
(a) Solicitous.
(b) Dissembling.
(c) Annoying.
(d) Aggravating.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Delia picks up an object and strikes a pose after being threatened by Sykes, what does the narrator state as the action that Sykes refrains from performing, though he usually would perform it right away in such a situation?

2. When Delia goes into the yard to retrieve the washtub, what action does Sykes take inside the house?

3. What does Delia say Sykes had brought to their marriage?

4. What does Delia do with the clothes after Sykes steps on them?

5. When Sykes tells Delia that he has promised "some other men" (2) that he will not allow Delia to do laundry for white people, whose name is the only one he mentions?

(see the answer keys)

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