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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) He is trying to help find a lost child.
(d) After they have sex, he loses interest in her.

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

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

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)?
(a) Synecdoche.
(b) Asyndeton.
(c) Polysyndeton.
(d) Antithesis.

5. What does Gin mean when she tells the narrator that she knows the dead woman?
(a) She dreams about the woman.
(b) The woman was not much older than Gin.
(c) The woman is a distant relative of Gin's.
(d) The woman was from her neighborhood.

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

7. 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 referencing the film From Here to Eternity.
(c) He is experiencing a feeling of being lost in space and time.
(d) The sound of the waves is exaggerated by his excitement.

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

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

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

11. 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 "now defunct Clark Theater."
(c) The characters visiting "Oak Street Beach."
(d) Gin saying that she feels "like Doris Day" is watching her.

12. What characteristic of the area around the beach is conveyed with its nickname, the "Gold Coast"?
(a) It is beautiful.
(b) It is similar to the Mediterranean.
(c) It is expensive.
(d) It is full of opportunity.

13. 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) Garbage.
(b) A dead body.
(c) Dead fish.
(d) The condom.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. On page 234, which of the following terms does the narrator use to describe the sunset?

3. Gin mentions her "nonna's cottage" (240). Whose cottage is this?

4. From the context of page 234, what "apocalypse" is the allusion to the Four Horsemen referring to?

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

(see the answer keys)

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