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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. 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) Her thoughts about religion.
(c) The direction she is traveling.
(d) The water level.

2. How does the woman realize her study of religion has made her feel?
(a) Confused.
(b) Peaceful.
(c) Energized.
(d) Guilty.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is the woman's landlady from?

2. Who is with the landlady when the landlady is talking about the mayor?

3. What detail in the description of the man's bedroom indicates how close the hurricane is getting?

4. For the majority of the story, what tone does the narrator adopt?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. Besides the timing of his phone call, what connects the man who thinks he is dying to the rest of the story the woman is writing?

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

9. What happens when the woman visits a Baptist church?

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

(see the answer keys)

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