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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. 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.

2. What are the details about Kimiko's clothing meant to convey about her?
(a) She is fashionable and glamorous.
(b) She is dignified and practical.
(c) She is confident and poised.
(d) She is colorful and eccentric.

3. What surprising event ends this story?
(a) Nagare retires.
(b) Kazu gets engaged.
(c) Miki runs away.
(d) Kaname disappears.

4. Who enters the café just after Kurata finally finishes his coffee and disappears?
(a) Nagare.
(b) Kazu.
(c) Fumiko.
(d) Goro.

5. When the narrator says that Yukio "felt like he had fallen into a deep crevasse," which is the best definition of "crevasse" (66)?
(a) Dilemma.
(b) Swamp.
(c) Hole.
(d) Depression.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Kurata's attitude after he speaks with Asami and finally drinks the last of his coffee?

2. What is Miki's attitude toward being asked to pour the coffee?

3. Just before he lifts his coffee to drink it and return to his own time, what does Kurata hand to Miki?

4. How old was Yukio when he accepted the wholesaler's offer?

5. What wish does Miki write on the tanzaku paper at the beginning of the story?

Short Essay Questions

1. What lies does Yukio tell his mother about taking care of himself, and why does he tell these lies?

2. What is similar about Asami's decision to meet Kurata and the advice Kurata gave her after her miscarriage?

3. 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?

4. What is Fumiko's relationship to the café?

5. What role did Kinuyo play in Kazu's recovery from her mother's death?

6. For Yukio, what is especially cruel about the timing of Kinuyo's death?

7. Immediately after losing all of his money, what is the only solution to his problems that Yukio can think of, and what prevents him from choosing this solution?

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

9. How did Yukio's perception of his own circumstances change over the years of his apprenticeship?

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

(see the answer keys)

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