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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. For how many hours was Michael Brown's body left facedown in the street after being shot six times by police in Ferguson?
(a) Four.
(b) Ten.
(c) Eight.
(d) Six.

2. How many of Mitchell Jackson's father figures were biologically related to him?
(a) Two.
(b) Four.
(c) Six.
(d) Zero.

3. The final line of the poem "Queries of Unrest" references "trying to save them the time of" doing what "to darkness when all they have to do is close their eyes" (100)?
(a) Witnessing.
(b) Ignoring.
(c) Burying.
(d) Planting.

4. The author of the essay "Black and Blue" states that seeing a lone woman walking at night in Jamaica was as common a sight as the sight of what mythic creature?
(a) Leprechaun.
(b) Loch Ness Monster.
(c) Unicorn.
(d) Sasquatch.

5. What emotion did Emily Dickinson define as "the thing with feathers" (166)?
(a) Freedom.
(b) Hope.
(c) Despair.
(d) Courage.

Short Answer Questions

1. What song did President Barack Obama sing at the funeral for those killed in the Emanuel Mother Church massacre?

2. When the author of the essay "Black and Blue" was warned by university officials to avoid walking in certain areas of the city, what threat does he mistakenly think he is being warned about?

3. At what university did Kevin Young teach for five years?

4. Which of her audiences does Kiese Laymon say his grandmother had considered to be the most important audience of her work?

5. From the deaths of Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice, how many indictments were handed down?

Short Essay Questions

1. What details does Kiese Laymon use in order to depict his grandmother's identity to the reader?

2. What event does the author of "Composite Pops" name as the one that taught him that he must be able to save himself?

3. What was the object mentioned in the very first lines of OutKast's music first heard by Kiese Laymon and why did the object's mention draw him in?

4. What does Kevin Young write is one of the best things about being black?

5. What two categories does Kevin Young say white thinking or acting out about being black almost always fall into and what example does he give for each category he names?

6. What two reasons does the author of "Know Your Rights" give for being bothered by her four-year-old son's tantrum during the family's walk to High Bridge?

7. What does the author of "Composite Pops" say that a boy must do if he is "not blessed with a father or gifted with a dynamic stand-in" (180)?

8. Why does Kevin Young insert "[name withheld]" rather than naming the killer responsible for the murders in Charleston?

9. Why does Garnette Cadogan hold out hope that he will not encounter the same problems while walking in New York City that he had while walking in New Orleans?

10. How does the poem "Queries of Unrest" connect to the part of the collection that it opens, entitled Reckoning?

(see the answer keys)

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