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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What is the rhetorical purpose of the anaphora in the narrator's description of the Gold Coast residents having sex?
(a) It creates increasing tension as the list continues.
(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 forms an ironic contrast with the story's opening.

3. 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.

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

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

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

7. Who asks the narrator and Gin questions as they try to leave the beach?
(a) The police officer with the crew cut.
(b) Curious onlookers.
(c) The ambulance attendant.
(d) The police officer with a beer belly.

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

9. 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."

10. 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 tells her she is crazy.
(c) He tries to tell her jokes to cheer her up.
(d) He pretends to feel the same way she does.

11. What is the detail about how long the narrator has been carrying a condom in his pocket meant to convey?
(a) His relative experience compared to Gin.
(b) His blindness to Gin's feelings.
(c) His eagerness to have sex with Gin.
(d) His responsible attitude.

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

13. What mood do the diction and details included in the scene where the police leave their cars and enter the water create?
(a) Frantic.
(b) Reverent.
(c) Inflammatory.
(d) Factual.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How has the narrator and Gin's relationship changed by the end of the summer?

3. 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)?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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