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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. Simon remembers that he had drawn which same-suit cards from the deck during his encounter with the fortune teller?
(a) Four diamonds.
(b) Four clubs.
(c) Four hearts.
(d) Four spades.

2. What item does Klara place upon each table on the night of her performance at the Cabaret theater called the Committee?
(a) A business card.
(b) A glass of water.
(c) A handkerchief.
(d) A rope.

3. In what year does the novel's prologue begin?
(a) 1982.
(b) 1960.
(c) 1969.
(d) 1978.

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

5. The title of the novel refers to what aspect of its plot?
(a) Saul used to call thunder clouds The Immortalists.
(b) The Immortalist is the name of Klara's act.
(c) Simon uses the term to refer to Klara's recklessness.
(d) The Immortalists is the name of Varya's antique shop.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who steps in and stops the policeman's harassment of Simon outside of the police station?

2. What does Gertie say to Simon on the phone just before she hangs up on him?

3. The narrator states that the timing of Klara's Jaws of Life trick must be "perfect or" (104) it will be what?

4. How old is Daniel when his father Saul dies of heart failure?

5. What does Raj do for a living when Klara runs into him again after ten years?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the author's purpose for using the allusion to The Statue of Liberty when depicting the children's grandfather Lev?

2. Compare Varya's ideas about fortune telling with Ruby Singh's.

3. When the narrator reveals that Raj has "big plans" (113) for overhauling Klara's act, what kind of changes does the narrator depict?

4. How many years pass between the first knock Klara believes Simon is using to communicate with her from the afterlife and the second knock she hears?

5. What evidence does the author provide for the claim that the Gold children in 1969 "are siblings, this summer, in a way they never will be again" (4)?

6. How is the theme of guilt depicted within Gertie's feelings about her son after his death?

7. The narrator takes pains to explain that Klara does not share her magic with people in order to deceive them. What is her true reason?

8. What differences between Robert and Simon does the author depict as those that drive Simon to cheat on Robert?

9. How did the Gold children's maternal grandmother die and why are the children adults before they find out this information?

10. What aspects of Robert's character are depicted as those that make him "stand out" (59) to Simon?

(see the answer keys)

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