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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How late was the author when he arrived for dinner at Elijah Muhammad's home?
(a) 15 minutes late.
(b) 30 minutes late.
(c) 1 hour late.
(d) 45 minute late.

2. The author states in the beginning of "Down at the Cross" that he believed that God and what were synonymous?
(a) Safety.
(b) Faith.
(c) Salvation.
(d) Purity.

3. Where does the author claim he was when a bartender refused to serve him and some friends in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) The J.F.K. airport.
(b) The La Guardia airport.
(c) The Sam Houston Airport.
(d) The Chicago O'Hare airport.

4. Who is quoted as having said "It is better to marry than to burn" in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) St. Paul.
(b) St. George.
(c) St. Peter.
(d) St. Andrew.

5. What does the word "assuage" from "Down at the Cross" mean?
(a) To satisfy.
(b) To placate.
(c) To reassure.
(d) To deter.

6. What does the author describe school revealing itself to be to the black community passing through adolescence in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) "A path to enlightenment."
(b) "A segue into more fruitful endeavors."
(c) "A pursuit toward excellence."
(d) "A child's game that one could not win."

7. Where did Rudyard Kipling live?
(a) France.
(b) Ireland.
(c) England.
(d) Canada.

8. What does the word "bulwark" mean in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) A chain.
(b) A rope attached to a roof.
(c) A fencing sword.
(d) A defensive wall.

9. In what periodical was "Down at the Cross" first published?
(a) Time.
(b) The New Yorker.
(c) Publisher's Weekly.
(d) Reader's Digest.

10. What color clothing does the author describe the women wearing at Elijah Muhammad's home in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) White.
(b) Yellow.
(c) Red.
(d) Green.

11. In describing his dinner at Elijah Muhammad's home, the author states, "I began to see that Elijah's power came from his" what?
(a) "Articulation and sense of logic."
(b) "Ability to create a sense of calm."
(c) "Ambition."
(d) "Single-mindedness."

12. Where does the author describe listening to the Muslim speakers in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) Delancey and Hickamore Streets.
(b) 125th Street and Seventh Avenue.
(c) Broadway and 45th Street.
(d) 12th Street and Seventh Avenue.

13. In "Down at the Cross," what does the author define as "the judges, the juries, the shotguns, the law"?
(a) "Freedom."
(b) "White society."
(c) "Power."
(d) "Legality."

14. When dd Elijah Muhammad die?
(a) 1975.
(b) 1969.
(c) 1965.
(d) 1980.

15. What does the author say "changes, totally and forever, the nature of reality and brings into devastating question the true meaning of man's history" in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) "The ambition toward a freer world."
(b) "The threat of universal exctinction."
(c) "Hope itself."
(d) "The threat of social evolution."

Short Answer Questions

1. The author states in "Down at the Cross" that what "and heroism have been made synonymous except when it comes to blacks"?

2. What word from "Down at the Cross" describes a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one?

3. Who founded the Nation of Islam?

4. What does the author describe as the subject of the Nation of Islam speeches he observed on the streets in "Down at the Cross"?

5. Where does the author describe the pimps and whores hanging out in Harlem in "Down at the Cross"?

(see the answer keys)

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