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

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

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

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) Her distance from the city.
(b) The direction she is traveling.
(c) The water level.
(d) Her thoughts about religion.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the woman think might be preventing her from committing to a center for her story?

2. What can be inferred about the woman from the description of the women who try to get her to sit down at their church?

3. 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)?

4. What does the hurricane do to the city in the woman's story?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the woman's story about, and what is its major flaw?

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. What contradiction does Davis's first sentence introduce?

9. What comment does the story make about paring a story down to the essentials, and what does this have to do with Davis's own style?

10. How is the story that the woman is writing similar to the earth and different from a hurricane?

(see the answer keys)

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