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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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?
(a) Metamorphosis.
(b) Propagation.
(c) Delineation.
(d) Exaltation.

2. The author writes in "Down at the Cross," "It was absolutely clear that the police would whip you and take you in as long as" what?
(a) "They could get away with it."
(b) "You were hiding something."
(c) "You were guilty."
(d) "You were not one of them."

3. As the author describes growing up in Harlem in "Down at the Cross," he says, "In the same way that the girls were destined to gain as much weight as their mothers, the boys, it was clear, would" what?
(a) "Become even lower than their fathers."
(b) "Leave home and never return."
(c) "Rise no higher than their fathers."
(d) "Fall even further from grace."

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"?
(a) To the 42nd Street Library.
(b) To a Broadway performance.
(c) To his high school.
(d) To the Institute.

5. The author asserts in "Down at the Cross" that "a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be" what?
(a) "Isolated."
(b) "Ignorant."
(c) "Scared."
(d) "Spineless."

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the author claim he was when a bartender refused to serve him and some friends in "Down at the Cross"?

2. How does the author describe his feelings about "a separate black economy in America"?

3. When was the Nation of Islam founded?

4. How does the author respond when asked by the female pastor, "Whose little boy are you?"

5. How late was the author when he arrived for dinner at Elijah Muhammad's home?

Short Essay Questions

1. What differences does the author point out between Christianity and Islam in the second section of "Down at the Cross"?

2. How does the author describe the setting of Elijah Muhammad's home in "Down at the Cross"?

3. What parallels does the author draw between Christianity and Islam in "Down at the Cross"?

4. What does the author remark about the Holocaust in "Down at the Cross"?

5. Who was Elijah Muhammad? What was his role within the Nation of Islam?

6. How does the author describe his departure from Elijah Muhammad's home in "Down at the Cross"?

7. What hypocrisies in Christianity and the Nation of Islam does Baldwin point out in "Down at the Cross"?

8. What elements of foreshadowing can be seen in the first part of "Down at the Cross"?

9. What does the author describe discussing with his driver after leaving Elijah Muhammad's home in "Down at the Cross"?

10. In the second section of "Down at the Cross," the author points out many reasons that American society is not healed in relation to race. How does he propose it might become healed?

(see the answer keys)

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