View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What two items does Varya keep taped to the wall next to her bed?
(a) Calendars and maps.
(b) Maps and music posters.
(c) Family photographs and family trees.
(d) Concert tickets and playbills.

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

3. Who is the oldest sibling in the Gold family?
(a) Simon.
(b) Klara.
(c) Varya.
(d) Daniel.

4. In what type of venue does Klara NOT perform her act during her early days as a magician?
(a) Concert halls.
(b) Dinner theaters.
(c) A circus.
(d) Caesar's Palace.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is NOT listed among the American events the Gold children are excluded from due to their youth?

2. Who spends the night with Simon in Ward 86 once he is diagnosed with the illness that will come to be known as AIDS?

3. To whom does adult Daniel bear a resemblance, according to Klara?

4. On what street in New York City do the Gold siblings seek the fortune teller?

5. What years are covered in Part One, Chapter One, when Simon's story is focused upon?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the Gold children bring to the fortune teller as payment for her services and why?

2. How does the author depict Simon's mixed feelings about his mother's decision to relinquish him at the police station?

3. Which of the Gold siblings is the most apprehensive about the prospect of visiting the fortune teller and why?

4. What is Robert's reaction to the AIDS epidemic and how does it differ from Simon's?

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

6. How is an allusion to the story of Icarus used within the author's depiction of Simon's progression toward the date of his foretold death?

7. How does the novel's setting within the prologue affect the events of the narrative?

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

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

10. How is repetition employed within the opening passage of Part Two:Proteus and to what effect?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,389 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample