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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. Why does Brown leave the military base?
(a) He does not get the exit-visa.
(b) He does not get the job.
(c) The attempt to make a political connection fails.
(d) His mother's brother is dead.

2. While going through his mother's desk after she dies, what did Brown find in the piggy bank?
(a) A folded picture of a man whom Brown does not recognize.
(b) A casino token and a medal from the resistance movement.
(c) Outdated currency from the previous government.
(d) A few pounds of English money.

3. How did Marcel kill himself?
(a) Drank two bottles of rum and contracted alcohol poisoning.
(b) Slit his wrists and throat.
(c) Jumped out a second-story window into the empty pool.
(d) Hung himself in the countess's bedroom.

4. Why is Martha in Santo Domingo?
(a) Her husband has been transferred to Lima.
(b) She is looking for Brown.
(c) Her husband has been transferred to Santo Domingo.
(d) She has left her husband and taken Angel.

5. When Brown arrived for the first time at the Hotel Trianon in Haiti, who was with his mother?
(a) Brown's father.
(b) Her husband, the count.
(c) Joseph.
(d) Doctor Magiot.

Short Answer Questions

1. Rather than participating in the night of entertainment, what does Mr. Fernandez do?

2. Where did Brown and Martha first meet each other?

3. What happens when Brown and Mr. Smith visit the Secretary of the Interior?

4. At the police station, when Brown and Smith go to visit Jones, what does the Tonton Macoute guard do?

5. What moment, as Brown remembers the past, makes him feel that his business was finally a success?

Short Essay Questions

1. Brown worries that Martha enjoys Jones's company, especially when she says it is because he makes the family laugh. Why is Brown so concerned? Does he feel that his relationship with Martha is threatened because of Jones?

2. When Brown first mentions his hotel to the passengers aboard the Medea, he shows them bright postcards of bikini-clad girls and jazz drummers. Does this present Brown as an optimist or a pessimist? What do the postcards tell the reader about his character?

3. With the thought that Doctor Philipot's spirit might be hovering around the body, hoping for an encouraging word of send-off, Brown purposely speaks trivial words about eating eggs in the morning. What does this tell the reader about his perception of death? How does it fit the tone of the book?

4. The Smiths knew that when Mr. Smith ran for president, he had very little chance of succeeding. Why are they still proud that he ran? How does this pride explain their characters?

5. When Mr. Smith sees Philipot's body in the pool, he thinks he is a sleeping beggar. How does this thought reflect on Mr. Smith's character? What about the fact that he wants to take money to the man?

6. In his mother's desk, Brown finds a disk which Doctor Magiot recognizes as a medal of the resistance. What does this reveal about his mother?

7. After Philipot's body is removed from the pool, Joseph cleans the pool so Mr. Smith can swim. Mr. Smith passes very close to where the body had crouched, and Brown cringes to think of the two scenarios. How is this, in a succinct fashion, an indication of the story?

8. In Chapter 1 of Part 1, Brown and Jones meet as Jones is attempting to bribe the steward to switch their rooms. How is this first scene indicative of Jones's character?

9. What is the purpose of the night of entertainment aboard the ship, in Part 1, Chapter 1?

10. Martha and Brown rendezvous for the first time in her car by the Columbus statue. What is the nature of this meeting and how does it set the tone for their relationship?

(see the answer keys)

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