Salvation+by+Langston+Hughes

Take the following quiz to assess your comprehension of the short story. You may type your answer choice on the line provided.

_____1. The first sentence of "Salvation"--"I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen"--is an example of //irony//. After reading the essay, how might we reinterpret this opening sentence? (a) As it turns out, Hughes was actually only ten years old when he was saved from sin. (b) Hughes is fooling himself: he may //think// that he was saved from sin when he was a boy, but his lie in church shows that he did not want to be saved. (c) Although the boy //wants// to be saved, in the end he only pretends to be saved "to save further trouble." (d) The boy is saved because he stands up in church and is led to the platform. (e) Because the boy has no mind of his own, he simply imitates the behavior of his friend Westle

_____2. Who has told young Langston about what he will see and hear and feel when he is saved? (a) his friend Westley (b) the preacher (c) the Holy Ghost (d) his Auntie Reed and a great many old people (e) the deacons and the old women

_____3. Why does Westley get up to be saved? (a) He has seen Jesus. (b) He is inspired by the prayers and songs of the congregation. (c) He is frightened by the preacher's sermon. (d) He wants to impress the young girls. (e) He tells Langston that he is tired of sitting on the mourner's bench. _____4. Why does young Langston wait so long before getting up to be saved? (a) He wants to get revenge against his aunt for making him go to church. (b) He is terrified of the preacher. (c) He is not a very religious person. (d) He wants to see Jesus, and he is waiting for Jesus to appear. (e) He is afraid that God will strike him dead. _____5. At the end of the essay, which one of the following reasons does Hughes //not// give to explain why he was crying? (a) He was afraid that God would punish him for lying. (b) He couldn't bear to tell Auntie Reed that he had lied in church. (c) He didn't want to tell his aunt that he had deceived everybody in the church. (d) He wasn't able to tell A