Between the World and Me Part I

The author’s tone in paragraph 1 is most accurately characterized as

• self-effacing confidence

• defensive self-justification

• Ironic humility

• arrogant superiority

• thoughtful questioning

We can infer from the statement, “I no longer feel it necessary to hang my head at parties and tell people that I am ‘trying to be a writer’,” that the author

• has found relief in choosing a career path other than becoming a writer

• had been embarrassed by his choice of career in the past but is no longer

• has found reluctant acceptance for his career as a writer

• has overcome the insecurities he formerly felt at social gatherings

• has become famous enough so that people no longer ask him what he does

In the last sentence of paragraph 1, the author characterizes himself as

• confident but diminutive

• unscientific butimaginative

• unexceptional butimpressed

• unreligious but grateful

• self-centered but unsurprised

In paragraph 2, the primary function of the quotation marks around the words “race” and “black” is to

• emphasize their importance to his argument

• imply that they are quoted from other well-knownsources

• challenge the common definitions of the terms

• highlight that he seeks to stipulate alternative meanings

• attack those who use the terms improperly

In paragraph 2, the phrase “the organization of people beneath, and beyond, the umbrella of rights” servesto

• answer the question the author has been “searchingfor”

• identify what the author has “spent [his] timestudying”

• explain the basis of “the history of civilization”

• define the function that “race” had performed in thepast

• challenge “Frankish, Italian, German, Irish” concepts ofculture

In paragraph 3, the use of the word “rapture” derives its force from all the following EXCEPT

• it subtly develops the perspective presented in the phrase “If my life ended today”

• it expands on the meaning of “great joy”

• it contains linguistic echoes of “rupture”

• it links connotatively to “The Mecca” and “the Dream”

• it defines a method “to best exploit that singular gift of study”

In paragraph 4, we can infer that the “land that I once considered mythical” is

• America

• heaven

• freedom

• France

• The Mecca

In paragraph 5, the author’s “warring emotions” refer to his conflict between

• his pride in his son’s confidence and knowledge of his son’s privileged status

• his desire for peace and his experience of the violence that disrupts it

• his childhood experiences and his adult perspective on that experience

• his personal life in his home and his public life in the community

• his participation in his professional career and his personal family life at home

The tone of the first five paragraphs of the passage is best characterized as

• didactic yet impartial

• moralistic yet even handed

• blunt yet hopeful

• condescending yet generous

• candid yet emotional