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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. From the story's context, when must Charlie have died?
(a) Shortly after the September 11th attack.
(b) Before the year 2000.
(c) In the year 2003.
(d) In the year 2000.

2. What do Rose and Isaac ask Lucien to do when he calls Nathaniel after Nathaniel arrives in New York?
(a) Not tell Nathaniel that they asked Lucien to call.
(b) Tell Nathaniel to go back home.
(c) Get Nathaniel a job.
(d) Find Nathaniel a place to live.

3. How are Nathaniel and Lucien related?
(a) Nathaniel is Lucian's cousin's son.
(b) Nathaniel is Lucien's brother's son.
(c) Nathaniel is Lucien's nephew by marriage.
(d) Nathaniel is Lucian's son-in-law.

4. What does Nathaniel suggest that people might be desperate enough to burn in the wake of a global computer failure?
(a) Their designer clothing and shoes.
(b) Their children's elementary school artwork.
(c) Their old issues of the New York Review.
(d) Stacks of money.

5. What ridiculous detail does Nathaniel give in his description of the last months of 1999?
(a) Businesses desperately trying to teach their staffs how to do math without computerized cash registers.
(b) Celebrity clairvoyants making wild predictions in the tabloids.
(c) Cults announcing that aliens would come to Earth at midnight on New Year's Eve.
(d) Preppers sealing their families into shelters underground.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which character works for Itami Systems?

2. After Charlie became ill, what did Lucien feel was happening to the world?

3. Which of the possible consequences of a global computer failure that Nathaniel mentions could be considered foreshadowing?

4. When Lucien is in the gallery imagining that he is with Charlie, what does he promise her?

5. To what does Nathaniel compare the sight of Manhattan from Matsumoto's loft?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Rose and Issac.

2. What is the "Reunion" referred to in the title of the sixth section of the story?

3. What is the "View" that the third section of the story is titled for, and why is it special?

4. What phrase makes Lucien think about the frog and the boiling water, and why?

5. How does the "View" referred to in the third section of the story change in its significance for Nathaniel between his arrival in New York and the narrative present?

6. Why did Nathaniel's friends come to live with him?

7. What qualities does Nathaniel have that worry his parents?

8. What is the meaning of the title of the section of the story called "Innocence"?

9. Explain the non-event that "Nathaniel Recalls the Miracle" is centered on.

10. Where are Nathaniel and his friends, in the narrative present, and what are they doing?

(see the answer keys)

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