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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Once the author of "The Weight" stopped reading James Baldwin's works in order to separate his own work from that of James Baldwin's, what is NOT one author he mentions reading voraciously?
(a) Ralph Ellison.
(b) Bell hooks.
(c) Sergei Dovlatov.
(d) Henry Dumas.

2. For what ultimate purpose does the author of "'The Dear Pledges of Our Love'": A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband" start her search for primary sources regarding Phillis Wheatley's life?
(a) To discover more about her own identity.
(b) To write a collection of essays about freed slaves.
(c) To publish a rebuttal to
(d) To write a series of poems about Phillis Wheatley.

3. In what year did Phillis Wheatley sail to London for a six week period in order to promote her poetry?
(a) 1768.
(b) 1832.
(c) 1901.
(d) 1773.

4. What distinction does a senior editor announce as applying to the author of "The Weight" during the first week of his internship?
(a) First black intern.
(b) Youngest intern.
(c) First gay intern.
(d) Least educated intern.

5. At what age did the poet Phillis Wheatley die?
(a) 42.
(b) 34.
(c) 28.
(d) 38.

6. What topic is NOT listed among the issues that the author of "Lonely in America" feels unable to fixate upon in order to dispel her sense of loneliness?
(a) Friendship.
(b) Poverty.
(c) Racism.
(d) The failures of the federal government.

7. What is the name of the police officer who shot Trayvon Martin?
(a) Roy Oliver.
(b) Timothy Loehmann.
(c) George Zimmerman.
(d) Frank Garmback.

8. The author of "White Rage" states that while before the Great Recession, white Americans had four times more wealth than black Americans, by 2010 the gap had increased to how many times?
(a) Five times.
(b) Six times.
(c) Ten times.
(d) Eight times.

9. 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?
(a) Three million.
(b) Eight million.
(c) Six million.
(d) Ten million.

10. What was the name of Phillis Wheatley's husband, who is being defended in the essay "'The Dear Pledges of Our Love'": A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband"?
(a) James Jackson.
(b) John Wheatley.
(c) Jacob Wheatley.
(d) John Peters.

11. What adjective does the writer of "The Weight" use to describe the black narrative within the United States?
(a) Problematic.
(b) Fractured.
(c) Quixotic.
(d) Linear.

12. The author of "White Rage" states that the case of Connick vs. Thompson ruled that it was what "for a city prosecutor's staff to hide evidence that exonerated a black man who was rotting on death row for 14 years" (87)?
(a) Unconstitutional.
(b) Legal.
(c) Justified.
(d) Illegal.

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

14. While Jesmyn Ward's father was born in Pass Christian, Mississippi, to what California city had he moved as a teenager in 1969?
(a) Vallejo.
(b) San Francisco.
(c) Los Angeles.
(d) Oakland.

15. 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) 3/4.
(b) 1/2.
(c) 1/4.
(d) 2/3.

Short Answer Questions

1. Jesmyn Ward's father is 51% Native American and is registered as a member of what tribe?

2. What other types of work had the editor published before curating The Fire This Time?

3. In what location did Granddaddy die within Kima Jones's poem "Homegoing, A.D."?

4. In the poem "Homegoing, AD" by Kima Jones, what kind of state does the narrator say she found out North Carolina is?

5. What are the estimates regarding how often an African-American is now killed by police within the United States, circa 2018?

(see the answer keys)

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