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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What film does the author describe her parents taking the family to see when it opened in 1974?
(a) Cassablanca.
(b) The Great Gatsby.
(c) The Maltese Falcon.
(d) To Have and Have Not.

2. How did Alison Bechdel inform her parents that she was gay?
(a) By telling them in person.
(b) By phone call.
(c) By email.
(d) By letter.

3. The title of Chapter 2: "A Happy Death," alludes to a novel written by what author?
(a) James Joyce.
(b) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(c) Ernest Hemingway.
(d) Albert Camus.

4. What word from Chapter 1 refers to skillful use of one's hands when performing conjuring tricks?
(a) Imperialism.
(b) Legerdemain.
(c) Gregarious.
(d) Antagonism.

5. Who is the "smooth-talking fortune hunter" in The Heiress that the author describes in Chapter 3?
(a) Morris Townsend.
(b) James Waldrop.
(c) Edgar Spency.
(d) William James.

6. How long before her father's death did Bechdel come out to her parents as gay?
(a) 2 weeks earlier.
(b) 4 months earlier.
(c) 1 week earlier.
(d) 2 months earlier.

7. In one of the illustrated panels in Chapter 1, the author says, "When I grow up, my house is going to be all metal, like" what?
(a) "A spaceship."
(b) "A submarine."
(c) "A silo."
(d) "A prison."

8. How far away was the author in college when her father died?
(a) 2 hours away.
(b) 4 hours away.
(c) 10 hours away.
(d) 5 hours away.

9. What novel is the play The Heiress based on?
(a) Washington Square.
(b) The Sun Also Rises.
(c) The Great Gatsby.
(d) To Have and Have Not.

10. What gift does the author describe having bought for herself after receiving a letter from her mother after coming out in Chapter 3?
(a) A men's suit.
(b) A Swiss army knife.
(c) A book.
(d) A pair of earrings.

11. Alison Bechdel's Fun Home is a graphic memoir that is filled with literary allusions. What book by James Joyce is alluded to with the title of Chapter 1: "Old Father, Old Artificer"?
(a) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
(b) Dubliners.
(c) Finnegan's Wake.
(d) Ulysses.

12. How old was the author when her father died?
(a) 21.
(b) 19.
(c) 16.
(d) 22.

13. The title of Chapter 3, ""That Old Catastrophe," is an allusion to what poem by Wallace Stevens?
(a) "Odysseus."
(b) "Two Roads Diverged."
(c) "A Nail in the Coffin."
(d) "Sunday Morning."

14. Of what material was Bruce Bechtel's tombstone made?
(a) Bronze.
(b) Marble.
(c) Granite.
(d) Fieldstone.

15. Consider the following sentence from Chapter 1: "His shame inhabited our house as pervasively and invisibly as the aromatic must of aging mahogany." What literary device is used in this sentence?
(a) Simile.
(b) Onomatopoeia.
(c) Metaphor.
(d) Literary allusion.

Short Answer Questions

1. On what date did the author receive a message to contact her mother immediately because her father had been killed?

2. Who is the author of Delta of Venus?

3. The author describes her childhood home as being built in a brief moment of wealth from the lumber industry in what year?

4. In what year did Bruce Bechdel die?

5. Where was Bruce Bechdel when he died?

(see the answer keys)

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