View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Edward wonders whether he should find a proper job instead of pursuing his writing, what job does he imagine taking?
(a) History teacher at a high school.
(b) History professor at a university.
(c) History teacher at a grammar school.
(d) History teacher at a middle school.

2. The narrator reports that when Edward stares at Florence, she does not take what action that every other girl takes when he stares at them?
(a) She does not look away.
(b) She does not look back at him coyly.
(c) She does not leave the room.
(d) She does not frown at him.

3. What is Florence wearing when Edward sees her for the first time?
(a) A floppy hat.
(b) A blue pantsuit.
(c) A white cotton dress.
(d) A purple muslin dress.

4. What word brings to Florence's mind "nothing but pain, flesh parted before a knife" (8)?
(a) Penetration.
(b) Entered.
(c) Proclivity.
(d) Intercourse.

5. When Edward plans to write a series of short biographies, whom does he choose as his first subject?
(a) Marie Antoinette.
(b) Sir Robert Carey.
(c) Attila the Hun.
(d) Genghis Khan.

Short Answer Questions

1. How is the cellist in Florence's string quartet different from the other quartet members?

2. What is the main course of Florence and Edward's wedding night dinner in the honeymoon suite?

3. What had NOT been on the list of Edward and Florence's fears in regard to their parents' behavior at the wedding?

4. How old is Florence when her father Geoffrey takes her on each of the two boat trips to Carteret?

5. What is the name of Florence's father Geoffrey's boat?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of the "contradiction" (28) the author describes as living within Florence's soul from the moment Edward asks her to marry him?

2. How is irony employed within the narrator's description of the moment Edward asks Florence to marry him?

3. What is the sole location that Florence and Edward determine is the only instance when they were in the same place at the same time before meeting?

4. What is the result of Edward's suggestion that the couple go downstairs to listen to the news on the radio properly?

5. How is the theme of misunderstanding portrayed within the narrator's explanation of Edward's mistaking Florence's shyness "for a form of coyness" (25)?

6. What distinction does the narrator make between Florence's wedding night anxieties and Edward's wedding night anxieties?

7. For what reasons does Florence say it is harder for her to contradict her father, Geoffrey, than it is for her to contradict her mother Violet?

8. What is the author's purpose for including the detail that on the cover of Florence's paperback guide for brides is "portrayed two smiling bug-eyed matchstick figures holding hands, drawn clumsily in white chalk, as though by an innocent child" (12)?

9. What does the television set symbolize within the narrative?

10. In a rare moment of assertiveness, Florence tells her mother Violet that she is disappointed in her. What reason does she give for her disappointment?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,804 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample