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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. To what does the narrator compare the other lovers on the beach?
(a) Fallen soldiers.
(b) Crash-test dummies.
(c) Abandoned mannequins.
(d) Sleeping dolls.

2. What repetition technique is used in the story's opening paragraph?
(a) Antanaclasis.
(b) Epizeuxis.
(c) Anaphora.
(d) Epistrophe.

3. 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 apologize to him.
(b) For her to like him again.
(c) For her to stay away from him.
(d) For her to get over the incident on the beach.

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

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

6. What technique is used in the sentence "On my fingers your slick scent mixed with the coconut musk of the suntan lotion we’d repeatedly smeared over each other's bodies" (234) ?
(a) Metonymy.
(b) Personification.
(c) Imagery.
(d) Allusion.

7. In the simile that the narrator uses when he describes holding Gin's breasts in his hands on page 234, to what does he compare her breasts?
(a) A garden.
(b) Fruit.
(c) Water.
(d) Cups.

8. 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 tells her she is crazy.
(c) He kisses her harder.
(d) He pretends to feel the same way she does.

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

10. What is the rhetorical purpose of the anaphora in the narrator's description of the Gold Coast residents having sex?
(a) It highlights the comic understatement of the narrator's response to the situation.
(b) It forms an ironic contrast with the story's opening.
(c) It creates increasing tension as the list continues.
(d) It stresses the similarities between the narrator and these strangers.

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

12. Why does Gin tell the narrator "Stop" when they are just about to have sex (236)?
(a) She sees something in the water.
(b) The narrator's condom has fallen off.
(c) She has changed her mind about having sex.
(d) She sees the police lights.

13. What technique is employed in the phrase "How adept we were at fumbling" (233)?
(a) Oxymoron.
(b) Verbal irony.
(c) Paradox.
(d) Juxtaposition.

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

15. What kind of blanket does Gin bring to the beach?
(a) A Navajo blanket.
(b) An army blanket.
(c) A picnic blanket.
(d) Her grandmother's quilt.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the story's opening, what details are related to the story's epigraph?

2. When the narrator unbuttons the second button on Gin's shirt, what does he see?

3. In the story's opening, what details are related to the characters' youth?

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

5. While he is on the beach, what does the narrator imagine the couples in the high-rises around them are wearing?

(see the answer keys)

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