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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Supervisor Tsukada say when someone asks if Supervisor Gondo joined the Woman in the Purple Skirt and other staff members a few nights earlier?

2. What does Supervisor Tsukada tell her colleagues the Woman in the Purple Skirt had said about the job a few nights earlier?

3. How did the Woman in the Purple Skirt react when she and the narrator collided outside of the elevator one day at work?

4. Who do the staff call "a straitlaced prude" (173) when the Woman in the Purple Skirt considers checking her bottle for alcohol?

5. Who brings the Woman in the Purple Skirt to work after she stops taking the bus in the mornings?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator come to memorize the director's home phone number?

2. What do the staff say the morning the Woman in the Purple Skirt is late for work? What does Supervisor Tsukada tell them they had done with the Woman a couple nights before?

3. What happens on the morning bus when the narrator notices a bit of rice on the Woman in the Purple Skirt's jacket?

4. What do the Woman and director do at the bus stop after the bar? What does the director learn he lost? What happened to this item?

5. What leads the Woman to leave the hotel and never return?

6. Why does the narrator go to work on her day off on the Woman's third day of work? Why does she return home?

7. Why is the narrator more likely to see the Woman at the park than at work after the Woman completes her training?

8. What do the director and the Woman do while at the bar? Does anyone speak to them? If so, what do they say?

9. Describe the conversation between the Woman and the director when she apologizes to him for being so late to work the morning of the bus incident.

10. How does the staff behavior toward the Woman change after they find out about her affair with the director? How does the Woman respond?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay describing the imagery used in The Woman in the Purple Skirt. Indicate examples of imagery in the text and identify possible meanings.

Essay Topic 2

Pick a character from the novel and discuss their goals and motives. Do they achieve their motive? Do they share similar goals and motives with other characters? Do their goals clash with other characters? How do the characters' goals and motives affect their interaction with each other?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay discussing the hotel setting in The Woman in the Purple Skirt. In what ways does this setting impact the narrative and the themes of obsession and loneliness?

(see the answer keys)

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