View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The self-help book that the author of "Lonely in America" tries to live by within the essay says that "to become free of disappointment, one must acknowledge the obvious, then" (37) do what?

2. In what year did Phillis Wheatley sail to London for a six week period in order to promote her poetry?

3. 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?

4. What is the occasion bringing everyone together within the poem "Homegoing, A.D. by Kima Jones?

5. Of what feeling does the author of "Lonely in America" say she had been trying to cure in herself as a "strategy to ward off future misery" (34)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What religion is being referenced in the conversation in Kima Jones's poem "Homegoing, A.D." and what details are included that lead to this conclusion?

2. At the time of Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah's visit to Nice, how had her relationship with money recently changed?

3. To what conclusion does Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah ultimately come to about the desire to "preserve things" (31)?

4. What reasons does Jesmyn Ward provide for her claim that it is "impossible for most black Americans to construct full family trees" (91)?

5. In her essay entitled "White Rage," what distinction does Carol Anderson make between white rage and black rage?

6. In what ways does the author of "The Dear Pledges of Our Love: A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband" demonstrate how difficult it can be to extricate oneself from the biases present within the American culture's views of black people?

7. What is Wendy S. Walters's central goal within the narrative of her memoir "Lonely in America" and from what source does she draw the idea for this goal?

8. How does the author of "Where Do We Go from Here" evoke feelings of hope in the reader at the end of her essay?

9. What proof, if any, did Honoree Fanonne Jeffers discover through her research that Phillis Wheatley's 1834 biographer had been related to Susannah Wheatley, Phillis Wheatley's mistress?

10. How is Jesmyn Ward's experience of receiving her genetic ancestry results different from the experiences of her parents?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Conduct an analysis of the rhetorical devices used by the author of "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning" in order to assert her claim that shared grief is the key to unifying the United States in its pursuit of racial equality.

Essay Topic 2

Despite the overwhelming gravity of the topic of racial injustice within modern America, Jesmyn Ward speaks to her feelings of hope when looking at the pieces collected within The Fire This Time. Choose three works that contain the theme of hope and discuss how the pieces' messages come together and how they link back to Jesmyn Ward's comments regarding hope in her introduction to the collection.

Essay Topic 3

Conduct a deep analysis of Garnette Cadogan's intended audience for his essay "Black and Blue." What are the characteristics of his intended audience and what elements of his essay prove the characteristics he expects his audience to have? Be sure to amply prove your determinations of audience characteristics using concrete details and examples from the text.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,243 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample