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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) Water.
(d) Cups.

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. On page 243, there is a reference to "Casanova." Why is this historical figure mentioned?

3. In the story's opening, what details are related to the characters' social circumstances?

4. On the fall night when the narrator realizes that his relationship with Gin is over, what are they arguing about?

5. Which detail of the narrator's description of their kisses indicates the passage of time?

Short Essay Questions

1. On the night in the lover's lane toward the end of the story, what does the narrator realize about his relationship with Gin?

2. What is the rhetorical purpose of the narrator's comments about the "bloodless way in which a young man discards his own virginity" (235)?

3. What does Gin dream about a baby in the water, and what does she believe her dream means?

4. What messages about gender, sex, and adulthood are being conveyed in the phrase "entered you as if passing through a gateway into the rest of my life," which the narrator uses to describe his beliefs about what is happening on the beach that night?

5. Explain the relationship of the story's title to the Amichai poem excerpt used as an epigraph.

6. What is the inclusion of details about the House of Dong intended to convey?

7. What is the rhetorical purpose of including the narrator's loss of the condom right before the drowned woman's body is discovered?

8. When the narrator and Gin are on the beach, what does the narrator imagine the people along the Gold Coast doing, and what thematic ideas does his description convey?

9. What is foreshadowed by the page 233 description of their "lover's lane"?

10. On page 233, the narrator describes the girlfriend's mother's car as having "a rosary twined [around] the rearview mirror like a beaded, black snake with silver, cruciform fangs." Describe the tone of this image and explain how it is related to the narrator's later description of unbuttoning his girlfriend's shirt.

(see the answer keys)

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