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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 is NOT listed among the American events the Gold children are excluded from due to their youth?
(a) Watching Midnight Cowboy.
(b) Attending Woodstock.
(c) Reading Helter Skelter.
(d) Joining the Stonewall riots.

2. Even though Klara holds down two jobs as a receptionist and a restaurant hostess, she spends her weekends engaged in what activity?
(a) Working on her novel.
(b) Scripting her magic show.
(c) Volunteering at the hospital.
(d) Painting.

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

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

5. When the Gold children reach the fortune teller's door, Varya is surprised because she had thought that magic would be what?
(a) Tangible.
(b) Detectable.
(c) Magnetic.
(d) Luminescent.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does Simon NOT count among the events that occurred directly as a result of the fortune teller's intervention?

3. Klara does not believe in the Jewish heaven because she considers it to be too what?

4. In what year does the novel's prologue begin?

5. What tradition does Gertie refuse to partake in at Saul's funeral?

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

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. What does the narrator mean when describing Simon's impression of the Castro district as being like a "fallout shelter" (79)?

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

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

7. What is the symbolism of the sequins that turn up everywhere inside Klara's home?

8. Describe the significance of Simon's dream about salmon and how it relates to his mindset at the time of his dream.

9. Who is the first of the Gold siblings to hear about the fortune teller and what action does this sibling then take?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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