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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) A dead body.
(c) The condom.
(d) Garbage.

2. 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) The narrator's best friend's house.
(c) Gin's grandmother's house.
(d) The balcony of the Clark Theater.

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

4. 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) ?
(a) Allusion.
(b) Imagery.
(c) Metonymy.
(d) Personification.

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

6. 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.

7. Why does the narrator say that Lake Michigan "became" the Pacific Ocean (235)?
(a) The sound of the waves is exaggerated by his excitement.
(b) Gin has always imagined losing her virginity on a California beach.
(c) He is experiencing a feeling of being lost in space and time.
(d) He is referencing the film From Here to Eternity.

8. What is the rhetorical purpose of the anaphora in the narrator's description of the Gold Coast residents having sex?
(a) It stresses the similarities between the narrator and these strangers.
(b) It forms an ironic contrast with the story's opening.
(c) It highlights the comic understatement of the narrator's response to the situation.
(d) It creates increasing tension as the list continues.

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

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

11. What detail on page 233 reveals that some time has passed since the events of the story took place?
(a) The "now defunct Clark Theater."
(b) Gin saying that she feels "like Doris Day" is watching her.
(c) The "lilac bushes in Marquette Park."
(d) The characters visiting "Oak Street Beach."

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

13. On page 243, there is a reference to "Casanova." Why is this historical figure mentioned?
(a) He was a poet who wrote about the nobility of faithfulness.
(b) He was a priest who argued that premarital sex is not a mortal sin.
(c) He was a groundbreaking psychiatrist.
(d) He was a legendary lover.

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

15. What kind of buildings are on the lovers' lane?
(a) Run-down cottages.
(b) Abandoned factories.
(c) Bars and strip clubs.
(d) Giant warehouses.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What technique is employed in the phrase "and justice for all" (234)?

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

4. To what does the narrator compare Gin's mother's rosary?

5. Why does Gin tell the narrator "Stop" when they are just about to have sex (236)?

(see the answer keys)

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