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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 the amount of the monetary advance White gives Blue?
(a) One hundred dollars.
(b) One thousand dollars.
(c) Fifty dollars.
(d) Five hundred dollars.

2. From where was Fanshawe's letter postmarked?
(a) New Jersey.
(b) New York.
(c) Paris.
(d) Mexico City.

3. What name does Blue use to introduce himself to Black during their second conversation?
(a) Brown.
(b) Rain.
(c) White.
(d) Snow.

4. During their second conversation, what does Black tell Blue that he does for a living?
(a) He says he is an insurance salesman.
(b) He says he is a writer.
(c) He says he is a teacher.
(d) He says he is a private detective.

5. What is the name of the film about the private eye starring Robert Mitchum that Blue goes to see?
(a) From Here to Eternity.
(b) East of Eden.
(c) Blast from the Past.
(d) Out of the Past.

Short Answer Questions

1. To whom does Blue write a letter about the case asking for advice?

2. According to the information provided in the first paragraph of Ghosts, who is it that walks through the door, thus beginning the story?

3. Whom does White want Blue to keep an eye on?

4. What is the name of the bartender with whom Blue has occasional conversations when he slips out to a bar?

5. What words are used to describe Blue's state of mind during the early period of the case?

Short Essay Questions

1. What initiates the argument between Sophie and the narrator at the end of Chapter 7? What is the status of their relationship when the narrator leaves for Paris?

2. Why does Fanshawe continue to address his letters to Ellen even after her breakdown? To whom are the letters meant to communicate?

3. What does Jane Fanshawe do after lunch? What does the narrator think motivates this act?

4. When the narrator agrees to Stuart Green's project, what does he decide he will have to be deceitful about? How does this change the work he has been commissioned to do?

5. When Blue enters Black's apartment disguised as the Fuller Brush man, what does Black tell Blue his profession is? When Blue later breaks into Black's apartment and steals the papers from his desk, what does he find them to contain?

6. What is difficult for Blue about writing the monthly reports of Black's activities for White to read? What does he want to include in the reports to make them more truthful?

7. What does Fanshawe do during his trip to the cemetery with the narrator on the day of his father's death? What does his action remind the narrator of from their early childhood?

8. Who told Blue stories about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge? What was this person's profession and what became of him?

9. What is unusual about the letter that the narrator supposedly receives from Fanshawe? How does this quirk help to convince the narrator of the letter's veracity?

10. What is Sophie Fanshawe's reaction to the narrator's opinion of Fanshawe's work? Why does the narrator assume that she reacts in this way?

(see the answer keys)

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