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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When was the Emancipation Proclamation issued?
(a) January 1, 1864.
(b) January 1, 1863.
(c) January 1, 1862.
(d) January 1, 1865.

2. How does the author describe the stock from which the letter recipient came in "My Dungeon Shook"?
(a) "Sturdy, peasant stock."
(b) "Intelligent, handy stock."
(c) "Elegant stock."
(d) "Crafty and deceitful stock."

3. To whom is the author writing in "My Dungeon Shook"?
(a) His son.
(b) His brother.
(c) His father.
(d) His nephew.

4. What does the author describe his ancestors building in "My Dungeon Shook"?
(a) Cars.
(b) Factories.
(c) Railroads.
(d) Skyscrapers.

5. How does the author describe his father's life in "My Dungeon Shook"?
(a) Bombastic.
(b) Ambitious.
(c) Terrible.
(d) Impressive.

6. What does the author claim to act is to be in "My Dungeon Shook"?
(a) Committed.
(b) Complacent.
(c) Demanding.
(d) Impertinent.

7. What U.S. President issued the Emancipation Proclamation?
(a) James Buchanan.
(b) Andrew Johnson.
(c) Ulysses S. Grant.
(d) Abraham Lincoln.

8. What word from "My Dungeon Shook" means eager to fight or defiant?
(a) Truculent.
(b) Cautionary.
(c) Virulent.
(d) Conclusive.

9. The author urges the letter recipient in "My Dungeon Shook" to "imagine how you would feel if you woke up one morning to find the sun shining and all the stars" what?
(a) "Black."
(b) "Gone."
(c) "Fallen."
(d) "Aflame."

10. What does the author say can be heard in the letter recipient's father's "laughter and in his speech and in his songs" in "My Dungeon Shook"?
(a) Tears.
(b) Patience.
(c) Joy.
(d) Civility.

11. The author indicates in "My Dungeon Shook" that "people find it very difficult to act on" what?
(a) "Intuition."
(b) "Faith."
(c) "What they've forgotten."
(d) "What they know."

12. The author says in "My Dungeon Shook," that "if you've loved anybody that long, first as an infant, then as a child, then as a man, you gain a strange perspective on" what?
(a) "Time and human pain and effort."
(b) "Family and the meaning of life."
(c) "That there is fear everywhere."
(d) "A sense of love, peace, and justice."

13. The author claims in his conclusion of "My Dungeon Shook" that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom when?
(a) "Two hundred years too soon."
(b) "One hundred years too soon."
(c) "One hundred years too late."
(d) "Two hundred years too late."

14. Where was "My Dungeon Shook" first published?
(a) The New Yorker.
(b) The Progressive.
(c) Reader's Digest.
(d) Time magazine.

15. When was E. Franklin Frazier's book The Negro Family in the United States published?
(a) 1959.
(b) 1932.
(c) 1943.
(d) 1939.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the word "unassailable" mean in "My Dungeon Shook"?

2. How does the author describe the letter recipient as a baby in "My Dungeon Shook"?

3. The author says in "My Dungeon Shook," " There is no reason for you to try to become like" what?

4. For what work is Homer most known?

5. The author writes in "My Dungeon Shook," "You were born where you were born, and faced the future that you faced because" of what?

(see the answer keys)

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