View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Uncle Pete encourage Tessie and Milton to do to ensure their baby will be a girl?
(a) Use a thermometer to predict Tessie's ovulation date and have sex 24 hours before she ovulates.
(b) Use in-vitro fertilization.
(c) Go to church and pray that they will have a baby girl.
(d) Use a thermometer to predict Tessie's ovulation date and have sex 24 hours after she ovulates.

2. Why does the silk Lefty sells in the market not earn much money?
(a) Desdemona does not give him enough cocoons to sell.
(b) He brings the cocoons to market too late in the day.
(c) The silk is of poor quality and can only be used to make organzine.
(d) The merchants are poor and are unable to pay much for the silk.

3. What does Desdemona do to help make the village girls more attractive to Lefty?
(a) She teaches them to look like the girls in a lingerie catalog hidden in her father's dresser.
(b) She encourages them to practice personal hygiene.
(c) She gives them sex lessons.
(d) She teaches them how to talk to a man in a seductive way.

4. How does Desdemona's prediction of the sex of the baby compare to it's actual sex?
(a) Desdemona predicted the baby would be a boy and it is a boy.
(b) Desdemona predicted the baby would be a girl and it is a girl.
(c) Desdemona predicted the baby would be a boy, but it is born a girl.
(d) Desdemona predicted the baby would be a girl, but it is born a boy.

5. What is unique about Calliope's fifth chromosome?
(a) It produces an enzyme that prevents her from producing a certain hormone.
(b) It's structure causes her to have a birth defect.
(c) It leads her to be a large baby.
(d) It impairs her brain development.

6. What does Lefty resolve to do after his visit to the brothel?
(a) Attend the local Greek church more often.
(b) Leave Bithynios to immigrate to America.
(c) Tell Desdemona of his feelings for her.
(d) Marry a village girl and start a family.

7. Which of the following statements best describes Lefty?
(a) A jazz loving gangster.
(b) A cruel, abusive alcoholic.
(c) A modern man in a traditional town.
(d) A traditional man in a modern town.

8. What does Chapter Eleven do after the church service that shocks and frightens Tessie?
(a) He shouts obscenities in the church.
(b) He spills hot coffee on a little girl.
(c) He climbs up on a chair in the reception room.
(d) He brings a dead bird into to show Father Mike.

9. What is the English translation of "ex ovo omnia"?
(a) Everything is an egg.
(b) Everything exits an egg.
(c) Everything comes out of an egg.
(d) Every child begins as an egg.

10. What is the first luxury Milton purchases with the insurance money?
(a) The first Hercules Hot Dog stand.
(b) Plane tickets to Turkey.
(c) A Cadillac.
(d) A new home in Grosse Pointe.

11. In the chapter "Tricknology", what does Lefty do to help supplement his income?
(a) He extends the operating hours of the Zebra Room.
(b) He serves as a driver for his friend Maurice during the day.
(c) He rents a room in the family's home to a customer from the Zebra Room.
(d) He solicits women to pose for pornographic photos taken by his friend Maurice.

12. What mistake does Dr. Philobosian make when the narrator is born?
(a) He incorrectly diagnoses the baby with a birth defect.
(b) He fails to administer an epidural to Tessie.
(c) He becomes distracted by Nurse Rosalee.
(d) He fails to fully examine his/her genitals thus does not notice s/he was a hermaphrodite.

13. What does Lefty decide to do to earn money to support his family after Jimmy Zismo's death?
(a) Open a bar, the Zebra Room, in his basement.
(b) Sell Jimmy's zebra skin rug.
(c) Take over Jimmy's bootlegging business.
(d) Work at the Ford factory.

14. What does the narrator say his purpose for telling this story?
(a) To share his family history.
(b) To explain why he is the way he is.
(c) To record the history of his genetic anomaly.
(d) To convince the reader to accept him.

15. Who is Mrs. Watson?
(a) Lefty's mistress.
(b) Milton and Tessie's neighbor.
(c) A customer at the Zebra Room.
(d) Sourmelina's lover.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Desdemona vow to never do again after Calliope's birth?

2. What play do the two couples go to see the night that their babies are conceived?

3. What causes conflict between Jimmy and Lefty?

4. Who marries Lefty and Desdemona on the boat?

5. What does the narrator say makes him/her "the most famous hermaphrodite in history"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 858 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample