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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Yukio arrives in the past, what is Nagare doing?
(a) Waving to a child with a red backpack.
(b) Grinding coffee beans.
(c) Wiping glasses clean.
(d) Talking with a ghost in old-fashioned clothes.

2. When Kurata visits the café to clarify the time-travel rules, what question does he ask Kazu that she does not know the answer to?
(a) What time the ghost leaves her seat each day.
(b) Whether people who become ghosts are stuck in the time they traveled to.
(c) Why time-travelers cannot see the other customers during time travel.
(d) Whether the coffee cools at the same rate for everyone.

3. What illness did Yukio contract when he was two years old?
(a) Tetanus.
(b) Meningitis.
(c) Malaria.
(d) Pneumonia.

4. What causes Kimiko to tell Kiyoshi that he sounds like a detective?
(a) His tone.
(b) His diction.
(c) His persistence.
(d) His perceptiveness.

5. What question does Kazu ask Yukio that he refuses to answer?
(a) Why he wants to travel into the past.
(b) Why he did not attend his mother's funeral.
(c) Whether he is angry at Kyoko for keeping Kinuyo's illness a secret.
(d) Whether he intends to leave anything behind in the past.

6. What problem does Kiyoshi pretend to suffer from when he is in the past?
(a) A respiratory illness.
(b) A bad back.
(c) A sore foot.
(d) A failing memory.

7. Where is Fumiko when she calls Kurata while he is in the café?
(a) At her home.
(b) At work.
(c) At Asami's home.
(d) Outside the café.

8. What sound does the story end with?
(a) A cricket chirping.
(b) Miki singing.
(c) The clocks chiming.
(d) Coffee brewing.

9. What significant event on the previous day is part of the reason for the timing of Yukio's visit to the café?
(a) He was dismissed from his apprenticeship.
(b) He finished filing for bankruptcy.
(c) He received news that his creditors are calling in his loan.
(d) He found out that Kyoko believes he is angry at her.

10. What is implied when the narrator says that, upon hearing of his mother's death, Yukio "heard a tautly stretched string snapping inside his head" (66)?
(a) He decided that there was no longer any reason to strive to repay his debt.
(b) He was enraged at Kyoko's duplicity and wanted revenge.
(c) He realized that nothing more prevented him from committing suicide.
(d) He felt deep shame at having stayed away from his mother for so long.

11. What happens immediately after Yukio leaves the café to make a phone call?
(a) Nagare bumps into him on the stairs.
(b) He realizes that he has left his phone inside.
(c) Kazu locks the outer door.
(d) The ghost gets up from her seat.

12. Why is Kiyoshi initially unsure whether he will be welcomed into the café?
(a) He is a police officer.
(b) It is the anniversary of Kaname's death.
(c) Kazu dislikes him.
(d) It is almost closing time.

13. When he is in the past, what sound startles Yukio just as he is beginning to relax and feel sleepy?
(a) An alarm beeping.
(b) The antique clocks chiming.
(c) His phone's ringtone.
(d) The bell on the café door.

14. Why does Yukio regret it immediately after he blurts out that it looks as if Kinuyo has lost weight?
(a) He knows that it is impolite to comment on his mother's appearance.
(b) Her weight has always been a sore subject with Kinuyo.
(c) He suspects that his mother's poverty prevents her from getting enough food.
(d) He does not want to draw attention to her illness.

15. What lie about the future does Kiyoshi tell Kimiko toward the end of their conversation?
(a) That they go on to have several children.
(b) That the two of them are never separated.
(c) That he remains a detective.
(d) That his trip to the past is future-Kimiko's idea.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Yukio leave the café to make his phone call?

2. In Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird, where do Tyltyl and Mytyl encounter the child with the terrible fate?

3. What does Goro think is probably true about Kurata's meeting with Asami?

4. What is Kinuyo's interpretation of Kazu's intentions in adding the stirrer to Yukio's cup and asking him to pass on her regards to his mother?

5. Where did Kiyoshi and Kimiko meet?

(see the answer keys)

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