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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the main pastime depicted within the poem "The Tradition"?
(a) Going for ice cream.
(b) Gardening.
(c) Playing the piano.
(d) Playing baseball.

2. Jesmyn Ward's father is 51% Native American and is registered as a member of what tribe?
(a) Sioux.
(b) Choctaw.
(c) Blackfoot.
(d) Seneca.

3. What is the name of the editor who curated the works in The Fire This Time?
(a) Jasmine Walker.
(b) Jesmyn Ward.
(c) James Thurber.
(d) Jessica Walsh.

4. How does the author of "Lonely in America" say she would likely have handled being enslaved?
(a) She would have developed a dissociative disorder.
(b) She would have run away.
(c) She would have slain her master.
(d) She would not have survived it.

5. What kind of trees does the speaker of the poem "Homegoing, AD" by Kima Jones see that let her know they are close to their destination?
(a) Palm trees.
(b) Apple trees.
(c) Palmetto trees.
(d) Magnolia trees.

6. Whose original literary work inspired the title of The Fire This Time?
(a) Ralph Ellison.
(b) James Baldwin.
(c) Phyllis Wheatley.
(d) Langston Hughes.

7. A 2013 report by researchers at Brandeis University calculated that what fraction "of the collective wealth of African-American families was stripped away" (86) during the Great Recession?
(a) 1/4.
(b) 3/4.
(c) 1/2.
(d) 2/3.

8. What type of internship had the author of "The Weight" been completing when he had first fallen wholly in the love with James Baldwin's works?
(a) A carpentry internship.
(b) A professorial internship.
(c) A publishing internship.
(d) A reporting internship.

9. What major event happened upon Phillis Wheatley's return to America from London?
(a) She gave birth to her third child.
(b) She found that her husband had died in her absence.
(c) She was freed.
(d) She ran away from her master's home.

10. Who founded the college in Alabama that the author of "'The Dear Pledges of Our Love'": A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband" attended?
(a) The Baptist Church of Alabama.
(b) Former slaves.
(c) Plantation owners.
(d) The NAACP.

11. In what city does the author of "The Weight" meet his friend in order to visit the house in which James Baldwin died?
(a) Berlin.
(b) Nice.
(c) Lisbon.
(d) Paris.

12. In what New Orleans area cemetery is the author of "Lonely in America's" family buried?
(a) Normandy Cemetery.
(b) Greenwood Cemetery.
(c) Calvary Cemetery.
(d) Holt Cemetery.

13. What emotion does Jesmyn Ward say she feels when she looks at the works collected in The Fire This Time?
(a) Hope.
(b) Courage.
(c) Sadness.
(d) Dismay.

14. How many years apart does the author of "The Weight" say his grandfather's age and James Baldwin's age had been?
(a) 4.
(b) 3.
(c) 12.
(d) 7.

15. In what year was Trayvon Martin killed by a police officer?
(a) 2012.
(b) 2013.
(c) 2011.
(d) 2014.

Short Answer Questions

1. What company did Jesmyn Ward use in order to obtain a report of her genetic ancestry?

2. A 2016 joint report by the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund states that the Republicans' plan to emphasize identification requirements would adversely affect how many African-American voters?

3. How many books of Phillis Wheatley's poetry were published during her lifetime?

4. What is the name of the U.S. Senator who is famous for opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1957 "so strenuously that he conducted the longest lone filibuster ever" for over 24 straight hours?

5. The author of "Where Do We Go from Here?" states that "we must know deep in our bones and in our hearts that if the ancestors survived" what, "we can survive anything" (62)?

(see the answer keys)

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