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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Weller using as a makeshift ashtray at the opening of the play?
(a) An old shoe.
(b) The side of the porch.
(c) The lid of a biscuit tin.
(d) A hub cap.

2. What does Weller refer to as "dumb Gin"?
(a) Knocking.
(b) Collecting royal straights.
(c) Holding face cards too long.
(d) Collecting only straights.

3. What home does Fonsia wish to go to?
(a) The Calvinist home.
(b) The Presbyterian home.
(c) The Catholic home.
(d) The Lutheran home.

4. What is the first move of the gin game?
(a) The player discards one card.
(b) The dealer turns over a card from the stack.
(c) The player randomly selects a card from the stack.
(d) The dealer discards one card.

5. Where does Fonsia's son live?
(a) Hollywood.
(b) Vancouver.
(c) Denver.
(d) Ottawa.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many points do Fonsia and Weller play to in their first game?

2. What is it in Act 1, Scene 2 that makes Fonsia dizzy?

3. Fonsia wins a hand of gin that Weller would have won had he knocked. What card is she waiting for that eventually wins her the hand?

4. What does the family of Gladys Maye do to Weller that annoys him?

5. How many kids does Weller have?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is knocking?

2. What does Fonsia's childhood suggest about her character?

3. What is Fonsia's concern for Weller at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 2?

4. What new and combative aspect in the interaction between the two characters takes place upon Fonsia winning the hand with Queens in Act 1, Scene 2?

5. What 'admiral... minor virtues' did Fonsia's father personify, and how do you think they might contrast with Weller's character?

6. How does the scoring, according to the Hollywood style, work in gin?

7. Why don't "we have to worry about [Fonsia's] memory any more?"

8. In Act 1, Scene 1, what conditions find the two characters at the home?

9. What is it that you think is bothering Fonsia in Act 1, Scene 1?

10. What do you think is Weller's opinion of the other residents of the home after reading Act 1, Scene 1?

(see the answer keys)

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