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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Pharoah think of the lush, grassy lawn around the condominium complex called Damen Courts?

2. What type of person is Rickey?

3. Why do the police take the boys close to their home and drop them off with a stern warning?

4. Why do the boys hurry home from the tracks as the sun goes down?

5. Who is the teacher Lafeyette likes a great deal?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the relationship between LaJoe and her husband, Paul.

2. What is the accusation the local welfare office caseworkers bring against LaJoe?

3. How does a policeman treat Lafeyette in the stadium parking lot?

4. How does the teacher's strike of 1988 affect Pharoah?

5. How is the character of Pharoah developed in the story by how he cannot lie to LaJoe?

6. What is the quality of Henry Suder Elementary School?

7. Describe the severity of Pharoah's speech impediment.

8. What is the contrast between the murders in an affluent school and the shooting of Alonzo at Horner?

9. Explain the obsession Calvin Robinson has that Lafeyette finds interesting.

10. Explain what happens to Bird Leg.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Beginning with the positive influence Diana Barone had on Pharoah, write an essay about a particular teacher who inspired and influenced you. Be specific about things that teacher said and did which inspired you to be better at something. Maybe it was not scholastic excellence but some other aspect of your life the teacher impacted.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about political and criminal abuse of the poor, the uneducated, and the elderly. Explain why these people are so vulnerable to scams and oppression. Compare the scam artists who bilked LaJoe out of her deposit money for a new house to the corrupt politicians who allowed the projects to fall victim of disrepair and lawlessness. Include examples of whole political systems which allow starvation and genocide to go on among their people.

Essay Topic 3

Using LaJoe, Dawn, and LaShawn as examples, write a paper on the problem of teenage pregnancy. Discuss why it happens and why efforts to prevent teen pregnancies have not been all that successful. Discuss the other problems these young women face after their first child is born. Give your ideas of how the problem might be addressed.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 868 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample