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

Multiple Choice 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?
(a) Remove their hats and bow their heads.
(b) Cross themselves and say a prayer.
(c) Tell the narrator and Gin to move back.
(d) Look at Gin uncomfortably.

2. How has the narrator and Gin's relationship changed by the end of the summer?
(a) They argue constantly about trivial things.
(b) The narrator has begun to notice other girls in his neighborhood.
(c) Gin is not comfortable being alone with the narrator.
(d) Gin cries whenever the narrator tries to kiss her.

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

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

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

6. 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.

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

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

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

10. In the story's opening, what details are related to the passage of time?
(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.

11. Which detail of the narrator's description of their kisses indicates the passage of time?
(a) The suntan lotion.
(b) The Cokes.
(c) The lip gloss.
(d) The wind.

12. Which of the following techniques is used in the sentence "How adept we were at fumbling, how perfectly mistimed our timing, how utterly we confused energy with ecstasy" (233)?
(a) Asyndeton.
(b) Antithesis.
(c) Polysyndeton.
(d) Synecdoche.

13. 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) Personification.
(b) Allusion.
(c) Imagery.
(d) Metonymy.

14. In Gin's dream about the beach, why has the narrator left her alone?
(a) He has gone to get some mustard.
(b) They have had a big fight.
(c) After they have sex, he loses interest in her.
(d) He is trying to help find a lost child.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Gin mean when she tells the narrator that she knows the dead woman?

2. In the light from the squad cars and flashlights, what does the narrator see on the beach as the other couples are running away?

3. What does the narrator speculate that the lightening across the water might be doing?

4. What is the tone of the narrator's description of people in Gold Coast apartments having sex?

5. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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