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. Which of the following is the name of the English teacher at Nigel’s school?

2. Which of the following does Octavia take from Dinah?

3. On which of the following floors is Penny’s workplace at PHH?

4. Which of the following does the narrator note had been the previous function of the Reinhardt Uplift Center?

5. Which of the following is reported as the narrator’s mother’s name?

Short Essay Questions

1. What message does Jo Jo leave for the narrator when he leaves?

2. What does the narrator note as the inciting incident for his wanting to have Nigel demelanized?

3. How is “the original ADZE” described (218)?

4. What does the narrator’s grandfather report as the effect when “those problems done piled up on me” (137)?

5. What reasons does the narrator give for disliking Araminta?

6. How does the narrator characterize his relationship with Nigel after having drugged him (261)?

7. What outcome from the attack on the festival does the narrator note for PHH?

8. What reason does the narrator give for beginning to learn American Sign Language?

9. What advice does the narrator report receiving from his grandfather?

10. How does the narrator report his father describing “permitting issues” (231)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sources attest to the presence of We Cast a Shadow on bestseller lists. Assuming that sales figures reflect popularity, what accounts for the popularity of Ruffin’s novel? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

What purpose is served by the scene in which the narrator, Penny, and Nigel tour Shanksted Plantation, just before Nigel goes missing (50-54)? What in the text and experience indicates that purpose? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Early on, the narrator notes the contents of Octavia’s library, which include Eyes without a Face, The Hip Hop Ontologist’s View of Leda and the Swan, and Blackstone’s Law; Octavia notes that the books are “real, but mainly for effect” (8). What effect are they likely to have, and why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 654 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample