View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. WIth whom did the lawyer featured in Santa Barbara, 2016 leave her son when she left?
(a) Her aunt.
(b) Her sister.
(c) Her husband.
(d) Her mother.

2. What kind of people-mover did the unnamed narrator begin to use obsessively during her affair with a married man?
(a) Conveyor belt.
(b) Tram.
(c) Elevator.
(d) Escalator.

3. What kind of drink did the unnamed narrator order when she sat down at the hotel bar?
(a) A gin martini.
(b) A mojito.
(c) A gimlet.
(d) An old-fashioned.

4. When the unnamed narrator tells the group of women about the professor's control of her, she tells a story about what object?
(a) A bottle cap.
(b) A cloud.
(c) A bed.
(d) A car.

5. What did the unnamed narrator find out when she visited the fertility doctor to get checked out?
(a) She found out that she had a short ovulation cycle.
(b) She refused to see the fertility doctor.
(c) She found out she had a blocked fallopian tube.
(d) She found out she was sterile.

Short Answer Questions

1. The man at the hotel told the unnamed narrator that when a woman takes what action, he knows that he must untie her and allow her to leave?

2. The unnamed narrator states that she believed her married lover when he made what promise?

3. What type of beverage did the unnamed narrator consider throwing out the window at the end of Los Angeles, 2012?

4. How did the unnamed narrator feel about John's health kick, as described in San Francisco, 2012?

5. The unnamed narrator states in San Francisco, 2012 that, "Knowing someone is" how many "parts force" (74)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the setting of the section entitled Fresno, 2014 and which three new characters are introduced?

2. In what way does the unnamed narrator find her previous view of intimacy problematic?

3. For what reason did the unnamed narrator make several attempts to commit adultery before she was successful?

4. What three feelings does the unnamed narrator recall feeling when John expressed interest in marriage counseling?

5. In what specific setting does the story told by the unnamed narrator in the section entitled Santa Barbara, 2016 take place?

6. Discuss the stream-of-consciousness style in which Topics of Conversation is written.

7. How does the unnamed narrator answer her own question about why people confide in her?

8. In what way does Popkey suggest that the reader unpack their own reactions to the life events of the woman in Santa Barbara?

9. When the identity of the father of the unnamed narrator's child is finally revealed, who is it?

10. What act does the unnamed narrator describe as having been attractive due to its promise of "finite pleasure" (180)?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,123 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample