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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 is the narrator's favorite exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum?

2. What does the narrator do when he sees his visitor?

3. What animal does Vicky use as a philosophical example for the narrator?

4. Who offers the narrator a reference when he returns to the office?

5. Where does the narrator wake up in the morning?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is it ironic that the narrator snorts cocaine behind the library?

2. What does Michael theorize may have spurred the narrator to marry Amanda?

3. Why does the narrator leap out of the limo to escape his conversation with Bernie, the drug lord?

4. Why is the narrator unsettled by the absence of Amanda's mannequin?

5. What stunt is the narrator planning to pull at the fashion show?

6. Why does the narrator call Vicky after the party?

7. What does the reader learn about Megan's past?

8. How has the narrator gotten the ticket for Amanda's fashion show?

9. What is the significance of the rolls of bread?

10. What happens when the narrator and Amanda speak?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narrator constantly forgets about Megan--her soda, her bagel, and their lunch date.

1) Why do you think she slips through the cracks of his memory? Does his absentmindedness seem to bother her?

2) Examine the narrator's breakdown after he forgets her bagel. What excuse does he give her? What internal struggle is he having?

3) What are Megan's motives for inviting him over for dinner? Why is she so kind to him?

Essay Topic 2

Explain Vicky's concept of "ineffability." How is this concept appropriate for the narrator's view of his life and the people in it? How is Vicky an appropriate mate for the narrator, whereas Amanda was not?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the narrator and his mother.

1) Why does Michael resent that the narrator came only days before their mother died? Why did the narrator stay away so long?

2) What does the narrator's mother reveal to him on her deathbed? How does this experience affect the narrator?

3) Why does the narrator think he has reacted so badly to Amanda's leaving?

(see the answer keys)

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