View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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.

2. How does the author describe female segregated restrooms in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) They say "White Women" and "Colored Ladies."
(b) They say "White Ladies" and "Black Ladies."
(c) They say "White Women" and "Negro Women."
(d) They say "White Ladies" and "Colored Women."

3. The author states in "Down at the Cross" that what "and heroism have been made synonymous except when it comes to blacks"?
(a) "Violence."
(b) "Power."
(c) "Strength."
(d) "Love."

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

5. The author claims that we owe the ministry of Elijah Muhammad to the fact that he witnessed what when he was five or six years old?
(a) His uncle's execution.
(b) His mother's lynching.
(c) His mother's rape.
(d) His father's lynching.

6. What word from "Down at the Cross" means impossible to stop or prevent?
(a) Inexorable.
(b) Plausible.
(c) Deplorable.
(d) Inexcusable.

7. When did Elijah Muhammad tell the author that the white man's time had been up, but that it had been the will of Allah that the black man be redeemed by his white masters?
(a) 1932.
(b) 1913.
(c) 1925.
(d) 1919.

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

9. What word from "Down at the Cross" refers to a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument?
(a) Protagonist.
(b) Demagogue.
(c) Antagonist.
(d) Pedagogue.

10. Where does the author describe having dinner at Elijah Muhammad's home in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) Chicago.
(b) San Francisco.
(c) New York.
(d) Oakland.

11. Of the girls in Harlem going through adolescence, the author says in "Down at the Cross," "They understood that they must act as God's" what?
(a) "Decoys."
(b) "Angels."
(c) "Love."
(d) "Watchmen."

12. When was the Nation of Islam founded?
(a) July 4, 1961.
(b) July 4, 1940.
(c) July 4, 1930.
(d) July 4, 1936.

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

14. What kind of athletic career does the author describe pursuing but not succeeding at in "Down at the Cross"?
(a) Prize-fighting.
(b) Basketball.
(c) Baseball.
(d) Football.

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 threat of social evolution."
(b) "Hope itself."
(c) "The threat of universal exctinction."
(d) "The ambition toward a freer world."

Short Answer Questions

1. About how old does the author describe the female pastor as being when he met her in "Down at the Cross"?

2. In "Down at the Cross," the author describes the adolescent changes that the girls undergo, saying that they no longer tease the boys but do what to them instead?

3. The author states in the beginning of "Down at the Cross" that he believed that God and what were synonymous?

4. Where was the author going when he crossed Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and the policeman made a racial slur toward him in "Down at the Cross"?

5. During what years did Elijah Muhammad lead the Nation of Islam?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 580 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample