Traveling

Traveling

Multiple Choice

Read these lines from “Traveling.”

He had a classmate, a Jewish boy like himself, but from Virginia, who had had a public confrontation with a Negro man. He had punched that man hard, knocked him down. My brother couldn’t believe it. He was stunned. He couldn’t imagine a Jewish boy wanting to knock anyone down. He had never wanted to.

Why does the narrator tell this story about her brother’s experience at the college?

• to show how innocent her brother was at that time

• to show how widespread prejudice was in the South

• to show that even Jewish boys could be violent if provoked

• to show that fighting was more common in Virginia than in New York

Multiple Choice

In “Traveling,” what happens when the bus stops in Washington?

• A Jewish boy knocks down a black man.

• Passengers argue over seats near the front of the bus.

• Black people who are seated at the front move to the back of the bus.

• The narrator moves to the back of the bus to protest segregation.

Multiple Choice

What happens when the narrator in “Traveling” offers her seat to a young black woman who is holding a baby?

• The woman turns down the seat but lets the narrator hold her baby.

• The woman is too proud to accept the seat offered by the narrator.

• The woman accepts the seat, but a white man makes her get back up.

• The woman gladly accepts and sits in the seat with her baby.

Multiple Choice

Why does the bus driver in “Traveling” tell the narrator’s mother and sister to move?

• They are supposed to be sitting in the back part of the bus.

• They are sitting in the part of the bus reserved for black people.

• They are occupying a seat needed by a black woman carrying a baby.

• They are supposed to give up a seat to a white man who is standing.