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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the title of the poem used as an epigraph for this story?
(a) "The Mirror."
(b) "We Did It."
(c) "In Darkness and in Light."
(d) "Water."

2. Who is the author of "We Didn't"?
(a) Yehuda Amichai.
(b) Stuart Dybek.
(c) Vincent Kowalski.
(d) Perry Katzek.

3. 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) Grass, leaves, and snow.
(d) Gin's bed and their parents' cars.

4. While he is on the beach, what does the narrator imagine the couples in the high-rises around them are wearing?
(a) Business suits.
(b) Cocktail attire.
(c) Monogrammed pajamas.
(d) Spa robes.

5. What happens after the night on the beach, when the narrator senses Gin growing distant while they are kissing?
(a) He tries to tell her jokes to cheer her up.
(b) He kisses her harder.
(c) He tells her she is crazy.
(d) He pretends to feel the same way she does.

6. Which of the following is one of the places where the narrator and Gin go to try to resume their attempts at intimacy after the incident at the beach?
(a) Gin's grandmother's house.
(b) A party in the outer suburbs.
(c) The narrator's best friend's house.
(d) The balcony of the Clark Theater.

7. When the narrator unbuttons the second button on Gin's shirt, what does he see?
(a) A bruise.
(b) Her cross.
(c) Her camisole.
(d) A scar.

8. What does Gin tell the narrator she is afraid of when they are lying on the beach together?
(a) Him leaving her.
(b) Getting pregnant.
(c) Her parents finding out.
(d) Someone seeing them having sex.

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

10. Why does the narrator say that Lake Michigan "became" the Pacific Ocean (235)?
(a) He is experiencing a feeling of being lost in space and time.
(b) The sound of the waves is exaggerated by his excitement.
(c) He is referencing the film From Here to Eternity.
(d) Gin has always imagined losing her virginity on a California beach.

11. What technique is used in the phrase "the forlorn, deflated Trojan" (238)?
(a) Simile.
(b) Hyperbole.
(c) Personification.
(d) Onomatopoeia.

12. What does Gin mean when she tells the narrator that she knows the dead woman?
(a) She dreams about the woman.
(b) The woman was not much older than Gin.
(c) The woman is a distant relative of Gin's.
(d) The woman was from her neighborhood.

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

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

15. What technique is employed in the phrase "and justice for all" (234)?
(a) Metaphor.
(b) Allusion.
(c) Litotes.
(d) Verbal irony.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the detail about how long the narrator has been carrying a condom in his pocket meant to convey?

2. Who asks the narrator and Gin questions as they try to leave the beach?

3. After the narrator drops Gin off at her building on the night of the incident at the beach, why does she run back outside and call after him?

4. What detail on page 233 reveals that some time has passed since the events of the story took place?

5. What is the first priority of the ambulance attendant when he arrives?

(see the answer keys)

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