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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 causes Asami to burst into tears after Kurata has disappeared from the café?
(a) She realizes she has lost Fumiko's ring.
(b) Miki reads Kurata's wish aloud.
(c) She sees a photo of Kazu as a baby.
(d) Miki hands her the gift from Kurata.

2. When Miki and Nagare come back to the closed café later that night, what is Kazu doing?
(a) Standing alone in the dark, in front of her mother's ghost.
(b) Polishing the coffee cup that Kurata used.
(c) Finishing a painting of herself and Kinuyo.
(d) Unwrapping a Christmas gift from her boyfriend.

3. Which of the story's motifs is introduced by the Christmas tree and the extra item that Nagare adds to Kyoko's order?
(a) Analytical thinking.
(b) Generosity.
(c) Bereavement.
(d) Missed chances.

4. Why is Nagare confused by Kiyoshi's desire to return to the past?
(a) Kiyoshi has never wanted to give his wife a gift before.
(b) Nagare is surprised that a detective would believe in time travel.
(c) Kiyoshi's religion explicitly forbids anything related to magic.
(d) Nagare does not know that Kiyoshi's wife is deceased.

5. What order is Kyoko waiting for at the beginning of the story?
(a) Daifuku for her husband.
(b) A Christmas cake.
(c) A to-go breakfast.
(d) Her usual coffee.

Short Answer Questions

1. What color is the dress that Miki choose to wear to pour the coffee?

2. What illness was Kurata diagnosed with two-and-a-half years previously?

3. Where is Fumiko when she calls Kurata while he is in the café?

4. Why was Yukio still struggling financially even after he started getting a salary from the pottery studio?

5. What significant event on the previous day is part of the reason for the timing of Yukio's visit to the café?

Short Essay Questions

1. A year prior to the events of "Husband and Wife," what does Kiyoshi see in the café and what does it make him realize is true?

2. What comparison does Yukio make between his own situation and that of a character in Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird?

3. What kind gesture does Nagare make when he gives Kyoko her order, and how does Kyoko react?

4. What are the conditions that Kurata gives Fumiko for either bringing or not bringing Asami to the café?

5. How did Yukio lose all of his money?

6. What does Kinuyo explain to Yukio about the silver stirrer, and what does he realize this means Kinuyo knows?

7. Why does Kimiko have such a strong emotional reaction to the gift from Kiyoshi?

8. What is so tricky about Kurata's time-travel plans, and how has he tried to plan ahead to overcome this difficulty?

9. What larger point about life is the narrator of "Husband and Wife" making in the story's introductory comments about winter and spring?

10. What news about Yukio does the reader learn in "Lovers"?

(see the answer keys)

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