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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In what religion are the High Holy Days a sacred time?
(a) Judaism.
(b) Christianity.
(c) Islam.
(d) Hinduism.

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)?
(a) Juxtaposition.
(b) Analogy.
(c) Non sequitur.
(d) Parallelism.

3. What technique is used in the phrase "the stink of burning hair, fur, and horn" (19)?
(a) Synesthesia.
(b) Assonance.
(c) Onomatopoeia.
(d) Imagery.

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

5. Why does the man in the story feel so ill?
(a) He is having a heart attack.
(b) He has cancer.
(c) He has food poisoning.
(d) He has the flu.

6. 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 distance from the city.
(c) Her thoughts about religion.
(d) The water level.

7. Who is the author of "The Center of the Story"?
(a) Lydia Davis.
(b) Maile Chapman.
(c) Doris Betts.
(d) Judith Frank.

8. Why are rams' horns being blown all around the city?
(a) It is Yom Kippur.
(b) It is Rosh Hashanah.
(c) It is Sukkot.
(d) It is Hanukkah.

9. For the majority of the story, what tone does the narrator adopt?
(a) Objective.
(b) Melancholic.
(c) Amused.
(d) Dismissive.

10. What technique is used in the sentence: "The story is flat and even, just as the earth seems flat and even when a hurricane is advancing over it" (19)?
(a) Allusion.
(b) Personification.
(c) Simile.
(d) Allegory.

11. The man tells the woman that he has committed "blasphemy" (20). What has he done?
(a) Contemplated suicide.
(b) Told a harmful lie about someone.
(c) Shown disrespect to God.
(d) Cursed God's name.

12. 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)?
(a) This might not be the right time to tell his story.
(b) The man will be angry that she wrote about him.
(c) She is unclear about how she feels about the man.
(d) There is no real resolution to his story.

13. Who is with the landlady when the landlady is talking about the mayor?
(a) The main character.
(b) The mail carrier.
(c) The landlady's son.
(d) No one.

14. What can be inferred about the woman from the description of the women who try to get her to sit down at their church?
(a) She is Jewish.
(b) She is not Black.
(c) She is not a Christian.
(d) She is White.

15. What color is the light in the man's bedroom?
(a) Grey.
(b) Blue.
(c) Purple.
(d) Yellow.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the sick man want when he calls the main character?

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

3. What denomination is the last church that the woman visits?

4. Where is the woman's landlady from?

5. What specific Biblical story does the writer focus on?

(see the answer keys)

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