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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. As time passes, the narrator says thoughts of his lover are more in his ______ than his ______?

2. How often did the narrator and his lover make love during their time together?

3. How would the narrator feel when he closed his eyes and began to dream?

4. What still surprises the narrator about his relationship at the start of the story?

5. How did the narrator feel when his lover talked "late in the night...faster and faster" (25)?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the feelings about the narrator's affair linger after it ends at first?

2. Based on what the narrator says he spent in the first few paragraphs, what did he and his lover do during their trip?

3. How does the narrator describe his lover's behavior during the time they spend together before making love?

4. What surprising question did the narrator's lover ask him in bed one day? How did he respond? What did she think of his response?

5. Describe the image of the narrator's love in the coffee shop.

6. After including the entire day he and his lover spend together and all the bits that add up, how much does he say he has spent per hour?

7. How much does the narrator first say the cost of their love making was each hour?

8. Describe the narrators dream, which he has lying beside his lover.

9. What does the narrator note about his lover's skin when he talks about waking up and looking at her?

10. What type of questions does the narrator say he begins to ask himself after "the pictures start to go" (25) of his time with his lover?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay examining the green shirt as a symbol in "Break it Down." In what scenes does the shirt appear? What is the context? How does the shirt develop the narrative?

Essay Topic 2

What is the significance of the narrator breaking down the financial cost of his recent affair? To what conclusion, if any, do his calculations lead?

Essay Topic 3

Though there is no direct dialogue in "Break it Down," the narrator reflects on two conversations between himself and his lover. What were these conversions? What significance do they hold? Why might the author have chosen to include these?

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