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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. The narrator states in Chapter 7 that "One of the many sad ironies of African-American life is that every banal dysfunctional social gathering is called" what (93-94)?
(a) "A 'function'."
(b) "A pot-luck."
(c) "A gathering."
(d) "A get-together."

2. The narrator states in the Prologue, "This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I've never" what (3)?
(a) "Gone fishing."
(b) "Killed anyone."
(c) "Stolen anything."
(d) "Been in jail."

3. What does the narrator say Hominy's work mostly consisted of in Chapter 6 (82)?
(a) "Picking cotton."
(b) "Washing my car."
(c) "Watching me work."
(d) "Harvesting corn and potatoes."

4. In what key does the narrator say his father spoke in Chapter 1?
(a) F-flat.
(b) F-sharp.
(c) B-sharp.
(d) G-sharp.

5. What is the name of the social psychology bible that the narrator's father took with him to talk down folks in his town?
(a) The Blue Future of Life.
(b) The Planning of Change.
(c) The Faith and the Fury.
(d) The Path to Enlightenment.

Short Answer Questions

1. What caused Buckwheat's death?

2. How does the narrator describe the closing of the letter that summoned him to the Supreme Court in the Prologue?

3. How many students were in the narrator's graduating class in high school?

4. The narrator describes the black Justice as looking at him with "that crazy, red-eyed penetrating look that back home we call" what (22)?

5. Who does the narrator refer to as the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement" in Chapter 10 (127)?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the members of the Dum Dum Donut Intellectuals respond to the narrator's proposal to restore the City of Dickens?

2. How does the narrator encounter Marpessa in Chapter 9? What emerges in their meeting?

3. Why does the black woman slap the narrator in the Prologue?

4. How did the narrator's father die?

5. What are the three basic laws of ghetto physics that the narrator describes in Chapter 3?

6. How did the community respond when the narrator began his process of marking the boundaries of Dickens?

7. How is the narrator's home described? Where does he live?

8. When and where do the Dum Dum Donut Intellectuals meet?

9. What setting is established in the novel's Prologue? How is it described?

10. What happened on the occasions where the narrator attempted to emancipate Hominy?

(see the answer keys)

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