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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The narrator says in Chapter 5 that he picked up the cigar-maker’s habit of riding around in what on Sunday afternoons?
(a) A horse cart.
(b) A sailboat.
(c) A canoe.
(d) A hack.

2. Who shows the narrator to a boarding house in the beginning of Chapter 5?
(a) A butcher.
(b) A judge.
(c) A policeman.
(d) A minister.

3. The narrator says in Chapter 1 that he feels “a sort of diabolical desire to gather up all the little tragedies” of his life and turn them into what?
(a) “Fairy tales for the forgotten.”
(b) “Anecdotes on nature’s whimsy.”
(c) “A practical joke on society.”
(d) “Double rainbows.”

4. The narrator’s mother supported herself and her son by what means, according to the narrator in Chapter 1?
(a) Tutoring students.
(b) Growing vegetables.
(c) Sewing.
(d) Giving violin lessons.

5. Approximately how much money does the landlord at the boarding house earn per week, according to the narrator in Chapter 5?
(a) $50-75.
(b) $120-150.
(c) $80-100.
(d) $35-40.

6. What does the narrator describe growing along the edge of the fence by the vegetable garden in Chapter 1?
(a) Tomatoes.
(b) Potatoes.
(c) Huckleberries.
(d) Blackberries.

7. In Chapter 5, the narrator compares the black man and his fight to what bearing the “fury of the storm”?
(a) “The redwood tree.”
(b) “The willow tree.”
(c) “The bristlecone pine tree.”
(d) “The cedar tree.”

8. What term from the book refers to “the boys who pulled the long stems from the tobacco leaves”?
(a) Stemmers.
(b) Strippers.
(c) Gougers.
(d) Rippers.

9. Whom does the narrator describe as “a bright young fellow who was himself a student” that he talks with on the train ride in Chapter 4?
(a) A breeder.
(b) A horse breeder.
(c) A Pullman car porter.
(d) A shoe shiner.

10. In Chapter 1, the narrator states that he is led to reveal his secret by the same impulse as what?
(a) “The unfound-out criminal.”
(b) “The doctor telling his patient he’ll die.”
(c) “A nun lost in the woods.”
(d) “A blind rat.”

11. What does the narrator say he has never been good at because his “ideas of interpretation were always too strongly individual”?
(a) Running a business.
(b) An accompanist.
(c) Interpreting the Bible.
(d) Composing music.

12. What does the tall man with the small, dark moustache drill a hole through in Chapter 1 as the narrator watches?
(a) A five-dollar silver piece.
(b) A five-dollar gold piece.
(c) A ten-dollar gold piece.
(d) A two-dollar silver piece.

13. According to the narrator in Chapter 2, the two immediate results of his “forced loneliness” were finding company in books and greater pleasure in what?
(a) Thought.
(b) Nature.
(c) Silence.
(d) Music.

14. What term from Chapter 5 refers to a government led by a committee of military leaders?
(a) Revolution.
(b) Tribunal.
(c) Utopia.
(d) Junta.

15. How old does the narrator say he was when he “appeared on a program with a number of adults at an entertainment given for some charitable purpose, and carried off the honors” in Chapter 2?
(a) 12.
(b) 17.
(c) 14.
(d) 8.

Short Answer Questions

1. It is the narrator’s duty to bring what to the tall man with the small, dark moustache when he visits in Chapter 1?

2. The narrator says in Chapter 4, “I have since learned that this ability to laugh heartily is, in part, the salvation of the American Negro; it does much to keep him from going the way of the” what?

3. By what age could the narrator play by ear all of the hymns and songs his mother knew?

4. How much money does the narrator put in his trunk while his fellow roommates sleep in Chapter 4?

5. The porter tells the narrator that he has not had how many hours of sleep since he left Jersey City in Chapter 4?

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