View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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) Acerbic.
(b) Bemused.
(c) Ironic.
(d) Fatalistic.

3. 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 has gone to get some mustard.
(c) They have had a big fight.
(d) He is trying to help find a lost child.

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

5. 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.

6. 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 highlights the comic understatement of the narrator's response to the situation.
(d) It creates increasing tension as the list continues.

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

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

9. 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?
(a) To depict Gin's youth and vulnerability.
(b) To create a mood of disgust.
(c) To convey the narrator's ambiguous sexual orientation.
(d) To imply that the narrator is not really attracted to Gin.

10. Who is the author of "We Didn't"?
(a) Perry Katzek.
(b) Stuart Dybek.
(c) Vincent Kowalski.
(d) Yehuda Amichai.

11. In the light from the squad cars and flashlights, what does the narrator see on the beach as the other couples are running away?
(a) Dead fish.
(b) The condom.
(c) Garbage.
(d) A dead body.

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

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

14. What technique is evident in the phrase "feverish plucking and twanging, tom-toms, congas, and gongs" (235)?
(a) Euphony.
(b) Cacophony.
(c) Hyperbaton.
(d) Double entendre.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

2. 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) ?

3. What technique is employed in the phrase "How adept we were at fumbling" (233)?

4. What characteristic of the area around the beach is conveyed with its nickname, the "Gold Coast"?

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)?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 603 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample