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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) Fatalistic.
(c) Ironic.
(d) Bemused.

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

3. After the narrator drops Gin off at her building on the night of the incident at the beach, why does she run back outside and call after him?
(a) She wants to know if he needs an umbrella.
(b) She needs to get her blanket back from him.
(c) She want to know if he is going to tell anyone what happened.
(d) She wants to tell him that she loves him.

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

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

6. What happens after the night on the beach, when the narrator senses Gin growing distant while they are kissing?
(a) He kisses her harder.
(b) He pretends to feel the same way she does.
(c) He tries to tell her jokes to cheer her up.
(d) He tells her she is crazy.

7. What does the narrator see on the street when he is leaving Gin's building on the night of the beach incident?
(a) Beach sand.
(b) Gin's blanket.
(c) A condom.
(d) His underwear.

8. 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.

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

10. When the police examine the woman's body in the light of their flashlights, what does her nakedness and obvious pregnancy cause them to do?
(a) Cross themselves and say a prayer.
(b) Tell the narrator and Gin to move back.
(c) Look at Gin uncomfortably.
(d) Remove their hats and bow their heads.

11. From the context of page 234, what "apocalypse" is the allusion to the Four Horsemen referring to?
(a) Nuclear annihilation.
(b) Water scarcity.
(c) Global pandemic.
(d) Climate change.

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

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

14. 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) The narrator has begun to notice other girls in his neighborhood.
(c) Gin cries whenever the narrator tries to kiss her.
(d) They argue constantly about trivial things.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

4. What is the description of the condom springing from the narrator's fingers "like a spring from a clock" (235) meant to convey?

5. In Gin's dream about the beach, why has the narrator left her alone?

(see the answer keys)

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