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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. In what area is Edward's childhood home located?
(a) South London.
(b) Nottingham Terrace.
(c) Chiltern Hills.
(d) Cherwell Heights.

3. 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 leave the room.
(b) She does not look away.
(c) She does not look back at him coyly.
(d) She does not frown at him.

4. Florence and Edward's wedding takes place at what location?
(a) Piccadilly Square.
(b) Hyde Park.
(c) St. James's Cathedral.
(d) St. Mary's Cathedral.

5. During what decade does the couple's wedding take place?
(a) The 1960s.
(b) The 1950s.
(c) The 1930s.
(d) The 1970s.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Florence's IQ?

2. When writing his dissertation about dynamic people, Edward discovers that even what element of life brings "little happiness" (15)?

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

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

5. When Edward wonders whether he should find a proper job instead of pursuing his writing, what job does he imagine taking?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. What technique does Florence use in order to conceal her feelings from her family?

3. What legend exists about the shingle on Chesil Beach and how does it inform the couple's plans?

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

5. How does Florence describe her mother Violet's use of physical affection?

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

7. What is the author's purpose for using an allusion to the silverware collection in "the Ashmolean" (68) and how does this choice relate to a larger theme within the novella?

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

10. What example does the author provide to support the claim that Florence has come to find life within her family home as unbearably oppressive?

(see the answer keys)

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