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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: The Center of the Story.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where is the woman's landlady from?
(a) Cuba.
(b) Trinidad.
(c) Jamaica.
(d) Barbados.

2. Who is "thinking of writing a letter to the President" (20)?
(a) The landlady.
(b) The woman at the church.
(c) The man who thinks he is dying.
(d) The main character.

3. Why does the main character find that the story she is working on is not an easy one to write?
(a) It is about death.
(b) It is about friendship.
(c) It is about fear.
(d) It is about religion.

4. What detail of the woman's train ride reinforces the motif of things that come close to happening but do not actually happen?
(a) The direction she is traveling.
(b) Her thoughts about religion.
(c) The water level.
(d) Her distance from the city.

5. After completing her first draft of the story, what does the woman realize about it?
(a) She is losing touch with her passion as a writer.
(b) She cannot remember why she wanted to write it in the first place.
(c) She understands more about herself and her life now that she has written it.
(d) She is afraid that the content of the story will upset her friend.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does the man in the story feel so ill?

2. What technique is used in the sentence: "Outside her apartment, the weather was changing: the wind rose, the branches swayed on the young trees, and the leaves fluttered" (19)?

3. For what reason, besides that "there may not be enough to tell about him," does the woman think that the man might not be the right "center" for her story (20)?

4. What does the woman suspect that the man believes about his blasphemy?

5. Besides reading the Bible, what else does the woman spend her time doing in the period of time her story is about?

(see the answer key)

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