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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. 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 understands more about herself and her life now that she has written it.
(c) She is afraid that the content of the story will upset her friend.
(d) She cannot remember why she wanted to write it in the first place.

2. What detail in the description of the man's bedroom indicates how close the hurricane is getting?
(a) The drawn blinds.
(b) The television weather forecast.
(c) The windows rattling.
(d) The flickering electricity.

3. 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 White.
(b) She is Jewish.
(c) She is not a Christian.
(d) She is not Black.

4. 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) Allegory.
(b) Personification.
(c) Allusion.
(d) Simile.

5. What does the woman suspect that the man believes about his blasphemy?
(a) It caused his illness.
(b) It is no one's business but his own.
(c) It caused the hurricane.
(d) It is the reason she is angry at him.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is the woman's landlady from?

2. Who is "thinking of writing a letter to the President" (20)?

3. In what religion are the High Holy Days a sacred time?

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

5. In the story's opening sentence, what is implied about the main character's writing?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the woman is riding the train, after the hurricane has passed, what two realizations does she come to?

2. Why does the man in the main character's story think that he is dying, and what does he do about it?

3. Who are the people in the story that the writer is working on?

4. What did the woman originally begin her story with that she later decides to edit out?

5. In the end of "The Center of the Story," what does the woman realize about the emptiness at the center of her story?

6. What arguments for and against including the newscasters in her story does the woman entertain?

7. What paradox related to religion does the woman encounter in writing her story?

8. Why does the woman watch the news so often, and what does she hear on the news that makes her feel exicted?

9. What book has the woman been reading, and what story is she specifically interested in?

10. What does the woman realize about her religious belief and the calm she feels?

(see the answer keys)

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