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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who steps in and stops the policeman's harassment of Simon outside of the police station?
(a) Robert.
(b) Daniel.
(c) Klara.
(d) Gertie.

2. What do Klara and Varya find inside the lacquered box in Gertie's lingerie drawer?
(a) Photographs of their second cousins.
(b) Photographs of their maternal grandmother.
(c) Photographs of Gertie's former beaus.
(d) Photographs of their paternal uncle.

3. What is NOT named among Simon's "earliest memories of Ward 86" (87)?
(a) The shocked looks on the young patients' faces.
(b) The calm voices of the nurses.
(c) Robert's terrified eyes.
(d) The squeak of meal carts.

4. Where is Klara performing when Simon sees her act for the first time?
(a) At Fisherman's Wharf.
(b) At the public library.
(c) At a jazz club in the Fillmore District.
(d) At a bookstore on the Embarcadero.

5. Whose shift does Simon cover when he "wakes up with a red dot on the white of his left eye"? (86)
(a) Daniel.
(b) Robert.
(c) Tommy.
(d) Richie.

6. What does Klara do with the lacquered box once Gertie appears furious at its absence?
(a) She hides it in the attic.
(b) She sneaks it back into her mother's drawer.
(c) She burns it.
(d) She buries it in a vacant lot.

7. From what college does Gertie withdraw when she becomes pregnant with Saul's child at age 20?
(a) New York University.
(b) Stanford University.
(c) Yale University.
(d) Brown University.

8. What do the Gold siblings bring to the fortune teller as payment for her services?
(a) Their mother's set of tarot cards.
(b) Money.
(c) A dead rat.
(d) A sand dollar.

9. With whom does Simon begin an affair after the two cruise the Castro together?
(a) Richie.
(b) Tommy.
(c) Robert.
(d) Adrian.

10. What job does Gertie take after dropping out of college?
(a) Cook at a restaurant.
(b) Receptionist at a law firm.
(c) Teller at a bank.
(d) Typist at a medical office.

11. What kind of job does Simon find when he and Klara arrive in San Francisco?
(a) Cook.
(b) Valet.
(c) Go-go dancer.
(d) Bouncer.

12. What reason does Klara state for not calling the family to notify them of Simon's illness?
(a) She did not want to worry Gertie.
(b) Simon had begged her not to.
(c) It was not her right.
(d) She had not known the depth of Simon's illness.

13. What does Gertie say to Simon on the phone just before she hangs up on him?
(a) She tells him that he needs to take care of Klara.
(b) She tells him that she loves him.
(c) She tells him not to return home to New York City.
(d) She tells him that she will never forgive him for leaving her.

14. Klara does not believe in the Jewish heaven because she considers it to be too what?
(a) Mysterious.
(b) Hopeless.
(c) Perfect.
(d) Sterile.

15. Gali tells the members of his ballet company often that their "movements must have" (85) what?
(a) Integrity.
(b) Grace.
(c) Structure.
(d) Luminescence.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what month do the Gold siblings visit the fortune teller?

2. What San Francisco district does Simon describe as feeling "like a fallout shelter" (79) amidst the unrest elsewhere in the world?

3. What two items does Varya keep taped to the wall next to her bed?

4. What name does Ruby's mother call her?

5. How long after Simon's death is AIDS given its official name?

(see the answer keys)

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