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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the narrator beginning to "lose" (24) in the present regarding his lover?

2. What is the "very clean white place" (24) the narrator recalls being with his lover?

3. How did the narrator respond to the surprising question his lover asked him in bed one day?

4. When the narrator describes watching his lover as she sleeps, what does he say that makes the reader know their time together is temporary?

5. Why was the narrator surprised by the question his lover asked him in bed?

Short Essay Questions

1. What surprising question did the narrator's lover ask him in bed one day? How did he respond? What did she think of his response?

2. Why does the narrator choose not to kiss his lover's eyelids as he wants to while he watches her sleep?

3. After including the entire day he and his lover spend together and all the bits that add up, how much does he say he has spent per hour?

4. The narrator describes a moment in bed when his lover talked nonstop late into the night, her mouth close to his ear. How did he feel during that time?

5. Based on what the narrator says he spent in the first few paragraphs, what did he and his lover do during their trip?

6. Describe the narrators dream, which he has lying beside his lover.

7. Describe the image of the narrator's love in the coffee shop.

8. How does the narrator describe his lover's behavior during the time they spend together before making love?

9. What type of questions does the narrator say he begins to ask himself after "the pictures start to go" (25) of his time with his lover?

10. How much does the narrator first say the cost of their love making was each hour?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the significance of the narrator breaking down the financial cost of his recent affair? To what conclusion, if any, do his calculations lead?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay examining the green shirt as a symbol in "Break it Down." In what scenes does the shirt appear? What is the context? How does the shirt develop the narrative?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay analyzing narrative voice in Davis of "Break it Down." Include thoughts on how the narrative voice of the story is effective in conveying the story’s themes.

(see the answer keys)

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