Raymond's Run quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary genres best describe “Raymond's Run”?

   • Gothic Horror & Suspense
   • Correct answer: Realistic Fiction & Coming-of-Age
   • Fable & Moral Tale
   • Science Fiction & Dystopian
   • Historical Fiction & War Story

   Realistic Fiction & Coming-of-Age is exactly right. The story shows ordinary city life, and Squeaky grows up a little as she learns something new about her brother and her rival.

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2. 2

   Question 2. According to the opening paragraph, what is Squeaky's one job at home?

   • Correct answer: Minding her brother Raymond, which she says is enough
   • Running errands for the big boys and selling cards
   • Doing the cooking and cleaning so her mother can rest
   • Earning her own pocket money by working at a store

   Squeaky says, “All I have to do in life is mind my brother Raymond, which is enough.” George runs the errands, and her parents handle the rest. Raymond is not younger: “as any fool can see he’s much bigger and he’s older too.” People call him her little brother because he needs looking after, and Squeaky takes that job seriously.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why does Squeaky have no patience for Cynthia Procter?

   • Cynthia teases Raymond whenever Squeaky is not around
   • Correct answer: Cynthia practices hard but pretends things come easily
   • Cynthia beat Squeaky in the fifty-yard dash last spring
   • Cynthia told the teacher that Squeaky cheated on a test

   Squeaky explains, “Now some people like to act like things come easy to them, won’t let on that they practice. Not me.” Cynthia claims she forgot about the spelling bee, but Squeaky hears her “practicing the scales on the piano over and over.” Squeaky is proud of working hard in the open, so pretending bothers her more than anything.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What “private information” does Squeaky share about her father?

   • He was once the fastest runner in all of Harlem
   • He secretly coaches Gretchen for the May Day races
   • Correct answer: He can beat her to Amsterdam Avenue in a race
   • He used to win the fifty-yard dash every single year

   Her father can beat her to Amsterdam Avenue even when she has “a two fire-hydrant headstart” and he is running “with his hands in his pockets and whistling.” So everybody thinks Squeaky is the fastest, except the two people who know better.

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5. 5

   Question 5. When one of the girls asks Raymond what grade he is in, how does Squeaky respond?

   • She pulls Raymond into the candy store to avoid trouble
   • She laughs it off and invites the girls to race her now
   • She lets Raymond answer the question for himself
   • Correct answer: She says anything for Raymond must be said to her

   Squeaky snaps back, “You got anything to say to my brother, you say it to me, Mary Louise Williams of Raggedy Town, Baltimore.” When Rosie asks if she is his mother, Squeaky says, “That’s right, Fatso.” She had already decided that ducking into the candy store would be chicken, and the girls walk on up Broadway.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does "Dialect" mean in this story?

   • Formal textbook English with no slang or contractions
   • Correct answer: The everyday speech of a particular place and community
   • Words spoken in rhyme with a steady beat, like a poem
   • A private language invented by one character alone

   Squeaky tells her own story in the speech of her Harlem neighborhood: “cause” instead of because, “ain’t,” “a lotta precious time,” and “didn’t have no better sense.” Bambara writes it this way on purpose. The dialect makes Squeaky sound like a real, sharp-tongued girl talking straight to us, not like a textbook.

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7. 7

   Question 7. During the Broadway meeting, what does Squeaky think about girls smiling at each other?

   • Girls only smile when they want to get something from you
   • Girls smile more easily than boys, so it means very little
   • Correct answer: Girls never really smile at each other; no one teaches them
   • Girls should smile at rivals so they look like good sports

   When Gretchen gives her a fake smile, Squeaky thinks that “girls never really smile at each other because they don’t know how and don’t want to know how” and that no one is around to teach them. Remember this idea. The story comes back to smiling in its very last paragraph.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What is Squeaky's lucky number, the count she breathes to?

   • Correct answer: Seven
   • Three
   • Eleven
   • Four

   She strolls down Broadway “breathing out and breathing in on counts of seven, which is my lucky number.” At the park, Mr. Pearson hands her number seven, and at the end she notices Raymond breathes in counts of seven at the dinner table too.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What does Squeaky's memory of being a strawberry show about why she skips the May Pole dancing?

   • She still wishes she could dance on tiptoe like back then
   • She is still upset her parents never came to clap for her
   • She thinks the May Pole dance is only for little kids
   • Correct answer: She wants to be herself, a runner, not a costume part

   Squeaky remembers dancing on tiptoe as a strawberry in a Hansel and Gretel pageant and calls it “being a perfect fool.” Then she says, “I am not a strawberry. I do not dance on my toes. I run. That is what I am all about.” She would rather be herself than act like a fairy or a flower, and the last line of the story comes back to strawberries.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does "Hyperbole" mean in this story?

    • Giving human feelings to an object, animal or idea
    • A comparison that uses the word like or as
    • Correct answer: Deliberate exaggeration used for effect or humor
    • Repeating a consonant sound at the start of words

    No one can finish first, second and third in the same race, and a relay needs a team. Even the “quarter-meter relay” is a joke. Squeaky exaggerates on purpose to show off how confident she is, and her bragging is a big part of what makes her voice funny.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What is Mr. Pearson hinting at when he starts to say, “Wouldn’t it be a nice gesture” and then trails off?

    • Correct answer: That Squeaky should let Gretchen win to give someone a break
    • That Squeaky should help the little kids line up at the start
    • That Squeaky should run the relay race instead of the dash
    • That Squeaky should carry the flag in the May Day parade

    He has just asked, “going to give someone else a break this year?” and said the new girl should give her a run for her money. Squeaky wonders if he “is seriously thinking I should lose the race on purpose.” Her look stops him mid-sentence, and she stomps off thinking, “Grownups got a lot of nerve sometimes.”

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12. 12

    Question 12. What did the kids use to call Mr. Pearson to get him mad?

    • Daddy Longlegs
    • Correct answer: Jack and the Beanstalk
    • The Jolly Green Giant
    • Tall Paul the Lamppost Man

    Mr. Pearson “sticks out in a crowd because he’s on stilts,” meaning he is very tall. The kids called him Jack and the Beanstalk, and when he calls her Squeaky, she thinks he has no right to if she can’t call him Beanstalk. So she makes him use her full name, Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker.

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13. 13

    Question 13. Where and how does Raymond run during the fifty-yard dash?

    • In the lane next to Squeaky, wearing his own race number
    • Behind the finish line, cheering while jumping on a bench
    • In the twenty-yard dash, before the big kids run
    • Correct answer: On the other side of the fence, arms down at his sides

    Raymond is not in the race. He lines up “on the other side of the fence,” and runs alongside with “his arms down to his side and the palms tucked up behind him, running in his very own style.” Squeaky has never seen this before and almost stops to watch “my brother Raymond on his first run.”

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14. 14

    Question 14. While everyone waits for the result, what new plan does Squeaky make?

    • Correct answer: To retire as a runner and become Raymond's coach
    • To challenge Gretchen to a rematch the next day
    • To stop minding Raymond and let George do it again
    • To ask her father to train her for next year's race

    Watching Raymond climb the fence, Squeaky decides she “can always retire as a runner and begin a whole new career as a coach with Raymond as my champion.” She has ribbons, medals and a big reputation, and she asks, “But what has Raymond got to call his own?” It is still a plan when the story ends, but it shows how much she has changed.

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15. 15

    Question 15. Who wins the fifty-yard dash, according to the loudspeaker?

    • Gretchen wins, and Squeaky comes in second place
    • The judges call it a tie between the two girls
    • Correct answer: Squeaky wins, and Gretchen comes in second place
    • The result is never announced before the story ends

    After a long pause full of static and arguing about stopwatches, the loudspeaker announces, “In first place—Miss Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker.” Then, “In second place—Miss Gretchen P. Lewis.” Squeaky wins. The surprise is that by then she has already decided winning is not what matters most.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What does "Epiphany" mean in this story?

    • A story told out of order, jumping back to past events
    • A clue early on that hints at what will happen later
    • A struggle between a character and the forces of nature
    • Correct answer: A sudden moment of insight that changes how one sees

    Seeing how smoothly Raymond climbs, and remembering how he ran, “it occurred to me that Raymond would make a very fine runner.” In that instant Squeaky stops thinking only about her own winning streak and starts seeing her brother as someone with a talent of his own.

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17. 17

    Question 17. What kind of smile do Squeaky and Gretchen share at the end?

    • A fake smile that hides that they are still enemies
    • Correct answer: A real smile of respect, which Squeaky says is rare
    • A nervous smile since neither girl has heard who won
    • A sad smile because they know they will never race again

    Gretchen nods to congratulate her and smiles, and Squeaky smiles back: “We stand there with this big smile of respect between us.” She calls it “about as real a smile as girls can do for each other.” The story does not say they become friends, but Squeaky does wonder if Gretchen would like to help her coach Raymond.

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18. 18

    Question 18. Which theme does Bambara build most clearly in “Raymond's Run”?

    • Correct answer: Real respect comes from being honest about who you are
    • Winning is the only thing that makes hard work worthwhile
    • Family members should never race each other
    • People in cities are happier than people in the country

    Squeaky wins, but what she values at the end is respect: for Raymond's talent and for Gretchen, a serious runner. The final line says girls are often “too busy being flowers or fairies or strawberries instead of something honest and worthy of respect . . . you know . . . like being people.”

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19. 19

    Question 19. Why is the story called “Raymond's Run” even though Squeaky is the one in the race?

    • Because Raymond wins a race of his own that day
    • Because Raymond once held the record for the fifty-yard dash
    • Because the race is renamed in Raymond's honor by Mr. Pearson
    • Correct answer: Because his run changes how Squeaky sees him and herself

    Squeaky narrates and wins the race, but the most important run is Raymond's, on the other side of the fence. Watching it, she sees him as “a great runner in the family tradition” and finds a new purpose for herself as his coach. The title points to the moment that changes her.

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20. 20

    Question 20. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • Squeaky got her nickname because of her squeaky voice.

      Happened

      She describes herself as a little girl with skinny arms and a squeaky voice, which is how she got the name Squeaky.

    • Squeaky walks Raymond on the curb side so he can see the traffic.

      Didn't happen

      She keeps him on the inside, close to the buildings, because he likes to pretend the curb is a tightrope.

    • Squeaky thinks about ducking into the candy store to let the girls pass.

      Happened

      She considers it, then decides that would be chicken and that she has a reputation to consider.

    • Cynthia Procter admits she stayed up late studying for the spelling bee.

      Didn't happen

      Cynthia claims she forgot all about it. It is Squeaky who says she stays up all night studying the words.

    • Squeaky dances around the May Pole in a white organdy dress.

      Didn't happen

      She skips the May Pole dancing and comes late, just in time to get her number pinned on.

    • Mr. Pearson hands Squeaky number seven and two pins.

      Happened

      He checks her name off his list and gives her number seven, her lucky number.

    • Just before a race, Squeaky feels like she is in a dream, flying over a beach.

      Happened

      She dreams of flying over a sandy beach in the morning sun, until she crouches at the line and feels solid again.

    • Raymond wears his own race number and runs in the lane beside Squeaky.

      Didn't happen

      Raymond is not in the race. He runs alongside on the other side of the fence.

    • Gretchen runs past the finish line and walks back breathing like a pro.

      Happened

      Squeaky sees her overshoot the line and walk back taking it slow, and she likes her a little for the first time.

    • Squeaky and Gretchen argue with Mr. Pearson about the stopwatches.

      Didn't happen

      The two girls just stare at each other. It is old Beanstalk who argues with the man on the loudspeaker.

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