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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. When Mr. Coulson complains about the cold, what is his servant's response?
(a) He offers to investigate the problem.
(b) He calls for Mrs. Widdup.
(c) He shuts the windows.
(d) He laughs.

2. When Mr. Coulson is irritated, he complains that no one in the house does what?
(a) Cares if he lives or dies.
(b) Responds when he rings for a servant.
(c) Listens to him when he speaks.
(d) Attempts to entertain him.

3. What is the implication of the passage "She blushed. Oh, yes, it can be done. Just hold your breath and compress the diaphragm" (333)?
(a) Mrs. Widdup may be faking her reaction to Mr. Coulson.
(b) Blushing happens when the diaphragm is contracted too forcefully.
(c) Most people blush on purpose.
(d) In her excitement, Mrs. Widdup can barely breathe.

4. What is comic about the turn of phrase "she withstood the attack of the ethereal mildness" (334)?
(a) The idea that "mildness" could be "ethereal."
(b) The contradiction in the terms "attack" and "ethereal mildness."
(c) The surprise ending to a well-known phrase.
(d) The understatement of the danger.

5. The narrator says,"Pixies and flibbertigibbits haunt the budding woods" (332). What is in the woods?
(a) Dangerous monsters and people with evil intentions.
(b) Tricky supernatural creatures and people with evil intentions.
(c) Tricky supernatural creatures and shallow, easily distracted people.
(d) Dangerous monsters and shallow, easily distracted people.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Miss Coulson ask when Mrs. Widdup's vacation begins?

2. What is implied by the number of days for which Miss Coulson orders extra ice?

3. Why is Mr. Coulson so clumsy on the afternoon after the ice is delivered?

4. What physical gesture of affection does Mr. Coulson make toward Mrs. Widdup?

5. When Mr. Coulson asks for his "aconite," what is he asking for (333)?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the titular allusion and the allusion to "the poet" in the first sentence of the story.

2. How does O. Henry use verbal misunderstandings to characterize Mrs. Widdup when she first appears in Mr. Coulson's room?

3. When Mr. Coulson finally confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup, what drawback to himself does he acknowledge, and what advantage does he say balances this drawback out?

4. In the passage where Miss Coulson stares out the window, the reader is told "The chirp of the sparrows gave her a pain. She mocked at May" (334). To what earlier passage is this a reference, and what is the significance of the reference?

5. What rhetorical purposes does O. Henry accomplish with his introduction of Mr. Coulson through a list of things that he "has," like gout, money, and a daughter?

6. What happens when Mrs. Widdup makes an excuse to go into Mr. Coulson's room to speak with him after the ice is delivered?

7. What is the rhetorical purpose of the allusions to Puck and Circe?

8. When Miss Coulson says that the supposedly chilly weather is "An instance...of winter lingering in the lap of spring," what double meaning does she have in mind? (335).

9. What is Miss Coulson's plan to head off her father's budding romance?

10. Explain the technique at work in the sentences "Sparrows wrangled happily everywhere outdoors. Never trust May" (333).

(see the answer keys)

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