View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What technique is used in the phrase "the forlorn, deflated Trojan" (238)?
(a) Onomatopoeia.
(b) Simile.
(c) Hyperbole.
(d) Personification.

2. 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) The characters visiting "Oak Street Beach."
(c) Gin saying that she feels "like Doris Day" is watching her.
(d) The "lilac bushes in Marquette Park."

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

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

5. What does the narrator speculate that the lightening across the water might be doing?
(a) Making sea glass on Michigan beaches.
(b) Chasing the seagulls out of the sky.
(c) Lighting up the paths of far-away freighters.
(d) Setting Indiana barns on fire.

6. 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?
(a) A garden.
(b) Fruit.
(c) Cups.
(d) Water.

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

8. To what does the narrator compare the other lovers on the beach?
(a) Crash-test dummies.
(b) Sleeping dolls.
(c) Abandoned mannequins.
(d) Fallen soldiers.

9. 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) Look at Gin uncomfortably.
(b) Cross themselves and say a prayer.
(c) Remove their hats and bow their heads.
(d) Tell the narrator and Gin to move back.

10. 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."

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

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

13. 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 creates increasing tension as the list continues.
(c) It stresses the similarities between the narrator and these strangers.
(d) It highlights the comic understatement of the narrator's response to the situation.

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

15. 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) Antithesis.
(d) Polysyndeton.

Short Answer Questions

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

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?

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

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

5. 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)?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 678 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample