View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What kind of blanket does Gin bring to the beach?
(a) Her grandmother's quilt.
(b) A Navajo blanket.
(c) An army blanket.
(d) A picnic blanket.

2. Why does Gin tell the narrator "Stop" when they are just about to have sex (236)?
(a) She sees something in the water.
(b) The narrator's condom has fallen off.
(c) She has changed her mind about having sex.
(d) She sees the police lights.

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)?
(a) Fatalistic.
(b) Bemused.
(c) Ironic.
(d) Acerbic.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What technique is used in the phrase "the forlorn, deflated Trojan" (238)?

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

4. In the light from the squad cars and flashlights, what does the narrator see on the beach as the other couples are running away?

5. When the narrator unbuttons the second button on Gin's shirt, what does he see?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the From Here to Eternity love scene evoked ironically when the narrator and Gin are on the beach?

2. What point about the relationship between men and women is made by the details the narrator observes on his train ride home after the night at Oak Street Beach?

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

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

5. Where are some of the places listed in the poem's opening paragraph, and how do they convey the couple's youth?

6. What scenario does Gin keep thinking about after the night on Oak Street Beach?

7. What does Gin dream about the dead woman and her grandmother's cottage?

8. In what sense does the narrator mean that, after the night on Oak Street Beach, the dead woman was always "with" him and Gin?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,219 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample