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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the first priority of the ambulance attendant when he arrives?
(a) To try to give the woman CPR.
(b) To demand that the woman be covered up.
(c) To see if the baby is also deceased.
(d) To ask whether Gin and the narrator know the woman's name.

2. What is the narrator's tone when he recalls, "I was trying to calm your terror with reassuring phrases such as 'Holy shit! I don’t fucking believe this!'” (236)?
(a) Fatalistic.
(b) Ironic.
(c) Bemused.
(d) Acerbic.

3. On the fall night when the narrator realizes that his relationship with Gin is over, what are they arguing about?
(a) The drowned woman.
(b) A female poet who has committed suicide.
(c) Whether they will ever have sex.
(d) A series of Elvis movies they saw at a drive-in.

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

5. What is the description of the condom springing from the narrator's fingers "like a spring from a clock" (235) meant to convey?
(a) The comical setting of their first attempt at sex.
(b) The narrator's general clumsiness.
(c) The complex nature of growing up.
(d) The pressure of time passing.

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

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

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

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

10. On page 234, which of the following terms does the narrator use to describe the sunset?
(a) "Pink peace."
(b) "Panorama pink."
(c) "Rose rapture."
(d) "Restless rose."

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

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

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

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

15. 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 get over the incident on the beach.
(d) For her to stay away from him.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What kind of blanket does Gin bring to the beach?

4. 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)?

5. To what does the narrator compare the other lovers on the beach?

(see the answer keys)

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