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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What reason does Bob give for falling out of touch with Jimmy?

2. What criticism does Bob have for New York itself?

3. What can logically be inferred about Bob and Jimmy's friendship?

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

5. Why are so few businesses open on the street where the officer is?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What is the significance of the similarities and differences in the ways that Bob's and the plainclothes officer's faces are revealed?

4. Why does Jimmy, in his role as the police officer, ask Bob if he is going to keep waiting for his friend to show up?

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

6. Why does Bob guess that Jimmy might not be as much of a success as Bob himself has become?

7. 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?

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

9. How is Bob characterized by the accessories that he carries?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that explores the significance of Jimmy's note at the end of "After Twenty Years." How does it advance the plot? How does it add entertainment value to the story? Is it congruous with the earlier characterization of Jimmy? How does it impact theme? Support your ideas with evidence from the text, including quoted evidence from the letter itself.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you analyze the strategy of including the plainclothes officer in the story "After Twenty Years." How does this character introduce misdirection into the story and why is this necessary? How does this character increase or decrease the moral authority of Jimmy's choices? Use textual evidence to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the role of setting in "After Twenty Years." Use textual evidence to support your arguments.

(see the answer keys)

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