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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. On page 621, Bob uses the slang word "bully." What does this word mean in the context of the story?
(a) Someone cruel and threatening.
(b) A great person, usually a male friend.
(c) Someone who uses force to get their way.
(d) Excellent, wonderful.

2. What effect does the officer tell Bob that time can have?
(a) It can give a man something new to be loyal to.
(b) It can change a good man into a bad man.
(c) It can make a person realize what is really important.
(d) It can gradually erase the feeling of friendship.

3. How many years separate Bob and Jimmy?
(a) 4.
(b) 0.
(c) 6.
(d) 2.

4. What is the significance of Jimmy knowing how long ago the restaurant closed?
(a) It confirms Bob's characterization of him as a lover of New York City.
(b) It creates dramatic irony.
(c) It characterizes him as an observant police officer.
(d) It foreshadows his identity.

5. What criticism does Bob have for New York itself?
(a) It is crowded.
(b) It is corrupt.
(c) It dulls the mind.
(d) It is full of snobs.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the plainclothes officer get Bob to walk with him?

2. What does the narrator mean by the description of the police officer's impressiveness as "habitual and not for show"?

3. What duty is the police officer performing in the opening of the story?

4. What reason does the waiting man give the police officer for his presence?

5. What kind of street is a "pacific thoroughfare" (619)?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the plainclothes officer tells Bob "We'll go around to a place I know of, and have a good long talk about old times," (621), what does he mean, and what does Bob likely think he means?

2. What is appropriate about the plainclothes officer greeting Bob with the line "It's Bob, sure as fate" (621)?

3. What does the note from Jimmy explain to Bob?

4. Describe the story's opening moments, including its setting.

5. What causes Bob to finally realize that the plainclothes officer is not Jimmy Wells?

6. What surprises Bob about the appearance of the man that he thinks is his old friend, and how does the man explain away Bob's doubts?

7. What were the circumstances of the agreement Jimmy and Bob made 20 years ago?

8. What is amusing about the plainclothes officer's answer to Bob's question about whether he is doing well in New York?

9. How did Bob and Jimmy know one another, 20 years ago?

10. In the story's beginning, what evidence is there that Jimmy takes pride in his job?

(see the answer keys)

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