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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

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

5. 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) Synecdoche.
(b) Antithesis.
(c) Polysyndeton.
(d) Asyndeton.

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

7. What does the narrator speculate that the lightening across the water might be doing?
(a) Setting Indiana barns on fire.
(b) Making sea glass on Michigan beaches.
(c) Chasing the seagulls out of the sky.
(d) Lighting up the paths of far-away freighters.

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

9. What detail on page 233 reveals that some time has passed since the events of the story took place?
(a) The "lilac bushes in Marquette Park."
(b) The characters visiting "Oak Street Beach."
(c) Gin saying that she feels "like Doris Day" is watching her.
(d) The "now defunct Clark Theater."

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

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

12. 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) A party in the outer suburbs.
(b) Gin's grandmother's house.
(c) The narrator's best friend's house.
(d) The balcony of the Clark Theater.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does the narrator compare the dead woman's hair to?

3. In what sense is the drowned woman also still constantly in the narrator's thoughts?

4. What happens after the night on the beach, when the narrator senses Gin growing distant while they are kissing?

5. What is the rhetorical purpose of the anaphora in the narrator's description of the Gold Coast residents having sex?

(see the answer keys)

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