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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How old was Alison Bechdel when she realized she was a lesbian?
(a) 19.
(b) 22.
(c) 16.
(d) 12.

2. The title of Chapter 3, ""That Old Catastrophe," is an allusion to what poem by Wallace Stevens?
(a) "A Nail in the Coffin."
(b) "Odysseus."
(c) "Two Roads Diverged."
(d) "Sunday Morning."

3. What is the name of the author's brother who is a year younger than her?
(a) Paul.
(b) Peter.
(c) Christian.
(d) John.

4. How old was F. Scott Fitzgerald when he died?
(a) 35.
(b) 44.
(c) 51.
(d) 49.

5. What does the word "qualmish" mean in Chapter 3?
(a) Gregarious.
(b) Insistent.
(c) Worried.
(d) Nauseated.

6. What gift did the author's mother give to Joan immediately after Bruce's funeral?
(a) A ring.
(b) A bracelet.
(c) A necklace.
(d) A book.

7. What does the author claim was her father's passion but not his job in Chapter 1?
(a) Cooking.
(b) Clothing design.
(c) Historical restoration.
(d) Drinking Scotch.

8. Who is the "smooth-talking fortune hunter" in The Heiress that the author describes in Chapter 3?
(a) James Waldrop.
(b) Edgar Spency.
(c) William James.
(d) Morris Townsend.

9. How does the author describe Joan after their meeting in Chapter 3?
(a) "Joan was a musician and a short-story writer."
(b) "Joan was an academic and an intellectual."
(c) "Joan was a poet and a 'matriarchist.'"
(d) "Joan was a mechanic and a laborer."

10. Who is the male leading role in the play where the author's parents met?
(a) Macbeth.
(b) Petruchio.
(c) Mr. Darcy.
(d) Hamlet.

11. Who is the heroine in Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady?
(a) Edna Waldrop.
(b) Isabel Archer.
(c) Marie Antoinette.
(d) Emily Wharton.

12. What kind of truck was involved in Bruce Bechdel's death?
(a) A Duncan Hines truck.
(b) A Sunbeam Bread truck.
(c) A Borden Milk truck.
(d) A Getty Gas truck.

13. What is the date printed on the passport photo from the author's trip to Europe with her family in Chapter 3?
(a) September 1, 1971.
(b) March 13, 1963.
(c) June 3, 1969.
(d) June 29, 1967.

14. The title of Chapter 2: "A Happy Death," alludes to a novel written by what author?
(a) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(b) James Joyce.
(c) Albert Camus.
(d) Ernest Hemingway.

15. What film does the author describe her parents taking the family to see when it opened in 1974?
(a) The Maltese Falcon.
(b) To Have and Have Not.
(c) The Great Gatsby.
(d) Cassablanca.

Short Answer Questions

1. The author says in Chapter 3, "Dad was passionate about many writers, but he had a particular reverence for" whom?

2. Where did the author's mother study acting?

3. To what religion did the author's mother ascribe?

4. What did Bruce Bechdel teach?

5. Consider the following sentence from Chapter 1: "His shame inhabited our house as pervasively and invisibly as the aromatic must of aging mahogany." What literary device is used in this sentence?

(see the answer keys)

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