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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 animal does the narrator purchase on the way back to work?
(a) A ferrett.
(b) A rabbit.
(c) A puppy.
(d) A fish.

2. Who has left a message for him inside the apartment?
(a) Michael.
(b) His father.
(c) Tad Allagash.
(d) Amanda.

3. What distinction does the narrator make between disasters in the city and in the rest of the country?
(a) Disasters in the city are man-made, whereas in the country they are acts of God.
(b) Disasters in the city involve taxis, whereas in the country they involve mini vans.
(c) Disasters in the city are always weather-related, whereas in the country they are never weather-related.
(d) Disasters in the city involved drugs, whereas in the country they involved alcohol.

4. What kind of ship does the narrator watch make its way across the river?
(a) A canoe.
(b) A schooner.
(c) A garbage barge.
(d) A sailboat.

5. What river is the narrator gazing across?
(a) The Hudson River.
(b) The East River.
(c) The Ohio River.
(d) The Mississippi River.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator feel is his most shameful addiction?

2. What does the narrator see in the window of Saks?

3. What happens to the narrator's deadline on the French piece?

4. What author did the narrator, in his first days at the company, give advice about his award-winning prose?

5. What advice does Walter Tyler give the narrator?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the mannequin symbolic of Amanda?

2. Why does Tad Allagash continually make up of stories of Amanda's death?

3. Does the narrator enjoy his work in the Department of Factual Verification? Why or why not?

4. How does the narrator's obsession with Coma Baby reflect on his own life?

5. What is the significance of the last three images in the chapter: the Colgate sign, the Statue of Liberty, and the garbage barge?

6. Why does the narrator seem surprised by his situation?

7. Why does the narrator feel he is so different from the Hasidic Jews he encounters on the train?

8. Though Vicky seems an appropriate person for the narrator and makes him happy, what ill affect does the exhilaration of their date have on the narrator?

9. What point of view does the author write in, and how is it distinguished?

10. How is the narrator's love of fiction detrimental to his development as an adult?

(see the answer keys)

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