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. How does Kurata react when he learns of Fumiko's marriage?
(a) He is amused.
(b) He is worried.
(c) He is delighted.
(d) He is bewildered.

2. What is Miki's attitude toward being asked to pour the coffee?
(a) Resentful.
(b) Grateful.
(c) Frightened.
(d) Enthusiastic.

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

4. With whom does Kinuyo enter the café when Yukio is in the past?
(a) Kazu.
(b) A man Yukio does not know.
(c) Kyoko.
(d) Yohsuke.

5. What detail does the narrator offer about the wholesaler that foreshadows his eventual disappearance?
(a) He complains of large debts.
(b) He does not pay his bills on time.
(c) His business is newly established.
(d) No one in Kyoto has heard of him before.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How long has Yukio been deep in debt?

3. What problem does Kiyoshi pretend to suffer from when he is in the past?

4. Just before Kyoko leaves the café, what does she thank Kazu for?

5. What is unusual about Kurata's time-travel plans?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Kinuyo prove her devotion to her son over and over during his childhood?

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. How does Yaeko Hirai's story inspire Kiyoshi to make a change in the way he has been living his life?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,146 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample