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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What technique is evident in the phrase "feverish plucking and twanging, tom-toms, congas, and gongs" (235)?
(a) Cacophony.
(b) Euphony.
(c) Double entendre.
(d) Hyperbaton.

2. What does the narrator see on the street when he is leaving Gin's building on the night of the beach incident?
(a) Beach sand.
(b) His underwear.
(c) Gin's blanket.
(d) A condom.

3. What is the first priority of the ambulance attendant when he arrives?
(a) To ask whether Gin and the narrator know the woman's name.
(b) To demand that the woman be covered up.
(c) To see if the baby is also deceased.
(d) To try to give the woman CPR.

4. What does Gin believe is true about the dead woman on the beach?
(a) Her death was accidental.
(b) She was an omen.
(c) She was sent by God.
(d) Gin and the narrator could have saved her.

5. Gin mentions her "nonna's cottage" (240). Whose cottage is this?
(a) Her mother.
(b) Her aunt.
(c) Her grandmother.
(d) Her sister.

6. What is the rhetorical purpose of including the detail "the skinny rails of your legs" (235) when the narrator is talking about taking off Gin's bikini bottom?
(a) To depict Gin's youth and vulnerability.
(b) To imply that the narrator is not really attracted to Gin.
(c) To convey the narrator's ambiguous sexual orientation.
(d) To create a mood of disgust.

7. What does the narrator compare the dead woman's hair to?
(a) Leaves.
(b) A horse's tail.
(c) Seaweed.
(d) A wig.

8. On the night when he realizes that their relationship is over, what does the narrator realize he really wants from Gin?
(a) For her to get over the incident on the beach.
(b) For her to apologize to him.
(c) For her to like him again.
(d) For her to stay away from him.

9. In the story's opening, what details are related to the characters' social circumstances?
(a) The condition of the Rambler and the rosary.
(b) Light and darkness.
(c) Gin's bed and their parents' cars.
(d) Grass, leaves, and snow.

10. What mood do the diction and details included in the scene where the police leave their cars and enter the water create?
(a) Factual.
(b) Frantic.
(c) Inflammatory.
(d) Reverent.

11. To what British author does the narrator ironically compare himself near the end of the story?
(a) Rudyard Kipling.
(b) D. H. Lawrence.
(c) H. G. Wells.
(d) James Joyce.

12. From the context of page 234, what "apocalypse" is the allusion to the Four Horsemen referring to?
(a) Global pandemic.
(b) Water scarcity.
(c) Nuclear annihilation.
(d) Climate change.

13. What characteristic of the area around the beach is conveyed with its nickname, the "Gold Coast"?
(a) It is expensive.
(b) It is beautiful.
(c) It is similar to the Mediterranean.
(d) It is full of opportunity.

14. In what sense is the drowned woman also still constantly in the narrator's thoughts?
(a) He sees her as a symbol of his own recklessness.
(b) He imagines that every man he sees could be her killer.
(c) He constantly imagines her there beside Gin.
(d) He begins collecting newspaper articles about drownings.

15. To what does the narrator compare Gin's mother's rosary?
(a) A bolo tie.
(b) A belt.
(c) A noose.
(d) A snake.

Short Answer Questions

1. When the police examine the woman's body in the light of their flashlights, what does her nakedness and obvious pregnancy cause them to do?

2. What does Gin tell the narrator she is afraid of when they are lying on the beach together?

3. What is the description of the condom springing from the narrator's fingers "like a spring from a clock" (235) meant to convey?

4. In Gin's dream about the beach, why has the narrator left her alone?

5. On page 234, which of the following terms does the narrator use to describe the sunset?

(see the answer keys)

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