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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. In the story's opening sentence, what is implied about the main character's writing?
(a) She does not deserve the praise she has gotten.
(b) Her readers are gradually deserting her.
(c) More than one of her stories is uninteresting.
(d) She is losing interest in her career.

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

4. On her train ride, what does the woman realize she has not given much thought to?
(a) The newscasters.
(b) Her next story.
(c) The devil.
(d) Her friend's illness.

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

6. What does the sick man want when he calls the main character?
(a) He wants her to come over and help him.
(b) He wants to talk about death and the afterlife.
(c) He wants her advice about whether to go to the hospital.
(d) He wants to apologize for the argument they recently had.

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

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

9. What specific Biblical story does the writer focus on?
(a) Noah's Ark.
(b) The Garden of Eden.
(c) Jonah and the Great Fish.
(d) The Trials of Job.

10. What does the woman think might be preventing her from committing to a center for her story?
(a) Laziness.
(b) Hope.
(c) Curiosity.
(d) Fear.

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

12. What denomination is the last church that the woman visits?
(a) Congregationalist.
(b) Episcopalian.
(c) Methodist.
(d) Baptist.

13. Why was the woman reading the Bible during the period she writes about in her story?
(a) Because she wanted to use Biblical allusions in her writing.
(b) Because it was the High Holy Days.
(c) Because she needed comfort during the hurricane.
(d) Because she wanted to know exactly what it said.

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

15. What does the hurricane do to the city in the woman's story?
(a) Drops large hail that smashes windows in buildings and in cars.
(b) Passes by without actually striking the city.
(c) Produces winds that uproot trees and tear off several roofs.
(d) Causes flooding that disrupts transportation.

Short Answer Questions

1. The man tells the woman that he has committed "blasphemy" (20). What has he done?

2. What is it logical to infer about the church women who are wearing red?

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

4. After completing her first draft of the story, what does the woman realize about it?

5. What does the narrator say "usually promises to be interesting" (19)?

(see the answer keys)

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