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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Jonesy think is keeping the ladies away from Cy?
(a) His lack of nice clothes.
(b) His rough handling of them.
(c) His gruff manner.
(d) Cy's throwback to the 19th-century look is keeping the ladies away.

2. Why does Cy stay at the hospital?
(a) He believes that if he leaves Grace will die.
(b) He believes that if he doesn't stay, Grace will think he doesn't love her.
(c) He hopes to sneak in to touch Grace.
(d) He is afraid the assailant will try again.

3. What does a soldier ask Cy about Grace?
(a) From what corner of hell he found her.
(b) If she is his girlfriend.
(c) If she was there to distract him from the needles.
(d) If she is a customer.

4. How can Cy gain insights into Grace's personality?
(a) He can ask Maximus.
(b) He can watch Grace perform.
(c) He can read some psychology books in the library.
(d) He can quiz chess devotees unobtrusively about Grace's strategy.

5. Why does Cy skip lunch the next day?
(a) He is on a restricted-calorie diet.
(b) He is not hungry.
(c) So he won't miss Grace should she show up.
(d) He is still suffering the effects of the tainted hot dog of yesterday.

6. Who is Arturas?
(a) An acrobat.
(b) A stevedore.
(c) The best tattoo artist in New York.
(d) A cart man.

7. Who does Cy watch at Varga's?
(a) The twins having a drinking contest.
(b) A man and woman having a loud argument.
(c) Two men downing snapps and arm wrestling.
(d) Grace playing chess.

8. Of whom does the tall nurse who sends Cy home remind Cy?
(a) Reeda.
(b) Grace.
(c) Riley.
(d) Claudia.

9. Where does Cy go despite his vows never to return after Lulu's death?
(a) To uptown Manhatten.
(b) To watch Grace at the circus.
(c) To Central Park.
(d) To Ellis Island.

10. What drawing does Cy search for and find near the end of the book?
(a) His first mermaid.
(b) A flying horse.
(c) An ancient eye.
(d) A woman on a dancing horse.

11. Why do tattooists stand apart from the tricksters and freaks?
(a) They do everything in the open.
(b) They are seen as somehow genuine and timeless.
(c) They have to have a license.
(d) They develop a true rapport with their customers.

12. By what is Grace hypnotized?
(a) The murmer of Cy as he reassures his client.
(b) The sound of the waves rolling on the beach.
(c) The sound of the mechanical embroidery.
(d) The sound of Cy humming a hymn.

13. After hearing Grace talk, what does Cy wonder about her?
(a) If she could be an orphan of the Great War.
(b) Why she would carry on in such a manner.
(c) If she is making it all up.
(d) If she is insane.

14. Who is Lulu?
(a) The gentle performing elephant that accidentally crushes a man to death.
(b) A tightrope walker.
(c) One of the co-joined twins.
(d) A bareback trick rider.

15. Where is Cy in 1946?
(a) In Southern California with Claudia and Arturas.
(b) Back at Pedder Street.
(c) Back at Coney Island.
(d) Killed in the war.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Grace reassure Cy about her body?

2. What does the city seem to generate?

3. How can Cy draw mermaids?

4. Why does Coney Island offer anything repulsive, breathtaking, or monstrously new that people are willing to pay to see?

5. What does Cy assume all newcomers to New York feel?

(see the answer keys)

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