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. Who saved Yukio's life by performing CPR on him when he nearly drowned?
(a) Seiichi.
(b) A passerby.
(c) Kyoko.
(d) Kinuyo.

2. What is the primary intent of the passage in which Miki comes out to pour the coffee and Nagare questions her about her readiness for the task?
(a) To show the deep love and tenderness Nagare feels toward his daughter.
(b) To show how joyful Nagare is to see his daughter growing up and becoming responsible.
(c) To show what an anxious parent the loss of his wife has made Nagare.
(d) To show that Nagare is unreasonably critical of Miki because of his high standards.

3. What is Miki's deceased mother's name?
(a) Kinuyo.
(b) Ikuyo.
(c) Aiko.
(d) Kei.

4. Which rule does Miki forget to review with Kiyoshi that he later nearly breaks?
(a) The rule about getting up from the chair.
(b) The rule about not trying to change the present.
(c) The rule about drinking the coffee before it gets cold.
(d) The rule about not leaving anything behind in the past.

5. Why is Kiyoshi initially unsure whether he will be welcomed into the café?
(a) Kazu dislikes him.
(b) He is a police officer.
(c) It is the anniversary of Kaname's death.
(d) It is almost closing time.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the startled man who exclaims when Kiyoshi appears in the café in the past?

2. What color is the dress that Miki choose to wear to pour the coffee?

3. Just before he lifts his coffee to drink it and return to his own time, what does Kurata hand to Miki?

4. On what date does the story "Husband and Wife" take place?

5. What characteristic of the café's Christmas tree is stressed in the narrator's description of it?

Short Essay Questions

1. For Yukio, what is especially cruel about the timing of Kinuyo's death?

2. What lies does Yukio tell his mother about taking care of himself, and why does he tell these lies?

3. What are the conditions that Kurata gives Fumiko for either bringing or not bringing Asami to the café?

4. How do Yukio's actions and emotions during the scene where he first sits down in the time-travel chair foreshadow his plan to not return to the present?

5. What comparison does Yukio make between his own situation and that of a character in Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird?

6. What complication almost prevents Kiyoshi from traveling back in time, and how does Nagare solve the problem?

7. When Kimiko enters the café, whom does Kiyoshi pretend to be, and why?

8. How does Yaeko Hirai's story inspire Kiyoshi to make a change in the way he has been living his life?

9. What is Fumiko's relationship to the café?

10. How did Kinuyo prove her devotion to her son over and over during his childhood?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,090 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample