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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

9. What is the tone of the narrator's description of people in Gold Coast apartments having sex?
(a) Derisive.
(b) Effusive.
(c) Wry.
(d) Ghoulish.

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. 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) Polysyndeton.
(c) Asyndeton.
(d) Antithesis.

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What technique is evident in the phrase "feverish plucking and twanging, tom-toms, congas, and gongs" (235)?

3. What mood do the diction and details included in the scene where the police leave their cars and enter the water create?

4. On page 243, there is a reference to "Casanova." Why is this historical figure mentioned?

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

(see the answer keys)

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