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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Many of what kind of machines are out of order in the penny arcade?
(a) The skit bowling machines
(b) The pinball machines
(c) The fortune telling machines
(d) The digger machines

2. What happened in roller coaster car in the early 1900’s?
(a) It came off the track as the riders were boarding it.
(b) It ran off the track and sailed over the boardwalk
(c) It was struck by lightning
(d) It had a rattlesnake in it

3. How many times a year does Ambrose’s family come to Ocean City?
(a) Once a year
(b) Three times a year
(c) This is their first time at Ocean City
(d) Twice a year

4. What does Ambrose imagine his father saying to him about the people on the boardwalk?
(a) They are trying to forget the war
(b) Half of them are probably insane
(c) They are all here just to have some fun
(d) Nothing is what it looks like

5. What does the narrator say a man could do with a mannequin?
(a) Use her as a guard on the bedroom door
(b) Modify her in certain ways
(c) Set her up to scare people in the funhouse
(d) Make her look like a gypsy fortune teller

6. For what does Ambrose think there should be a button?
(a) For ending one’s life quickly and painlessly
(b) For calling the funhouse attendant
(c) A button that would let his father know where Ambrose is located
(d) For turning on all the lights in the funhouse at one time

7. What does Magda pretend to ignore at the swimming pool?
(a) Peter’s diving
(b) Ambrose’s poor swimming
(c) How other girls look in their swimsuits
(d) How the swimming suits fit the boys

8. What does Ambrose imagine a woman saying to him when he is grown about his words?
(a) He does not talk enough
(b) He has a poor understanding of grammar
(c) His words are what makes him precious to her
(d) He talks too much about himself

9. At what age are people when the narrator says some people hit their stride?
(a) When they hit the twenties
(b) After marriage
(c) The middle teens
(d) Around thirty

10. How does the narrator say Ambrose feels about a funhouse?
(a) Ambrose thinks funhouses are false
(b) Ambrose feels fear and confused about the funhouse
(c) Ambrose thinks funhouses are stupid
(d) Ambrose thinks they are funny

11. Who sets the price for Magda’s clemency in the game 'niggers and masters'?
(a) Magda
(b) Peter
(c) It is set in the rules of the game
(d) Ambrose

12. What does the narrator say funhouses need at intervals?
(a) Staff members to help lost people
(b) Bells to ring if one is sick
(c) Male and female restrooms
(d) Exit signs

13. What does Ambrose’s mother do for Uncle Karl in the car while they are driving to Ocean City?
(a) Nothing
(b) Gives him a sandwich to eat
(c) Gets the cigar lighter for him
(d) Reads the map for him

14. What does Uncle Karl do for a living?
(a) Works in a munitions factory
(b) Is a masonry contractor
(c) Is a school teacher
(d) Has a plumbing business

15. Why does the narrator call Ambrose’s father a minstrel in reverse that evening?
(a) He carries his guitar across his back
(b) He pretends to sing on the street corner
(c) He could not sing but tried to anyway
(d) He is covered in Noxzema

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens when Uncle Karl taps his cigar out the ventilator window?

2. What does Ambrose imagine people think when years after he is still lost in the funhouse they find his skeleton?

3. What does the narrator say might provide a foreshadowing of the story’s climax?

4. What is hanging above the old man’s head in the funhouse?

5. What does Ambrose’s father come up with for Magda and Ambrose’s mother?

(see the answer keys)

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