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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. When Harry and Jean go out into the hallway together, he decides to "make hay while the match was shining" (26). What does the expression "make hay" mean?
(a) To get something done when the opportunity presents itself.
(b) To sweet-talk someone and try to get them interested in you.
(c) To pursue a point by asking questions or interrogating someone.
(d) To smoke--either a cigarette or marijuana.

2. What technique is employed when the narrator says, "If I was writing a story I could make up all sorts of things" (14)?
(a) Foreshadowing.
(b) Understatement.
(c) Irony.
(d) Paradox.

3. In the market, when Alfy calls out to Poor that he is "dying for a cigarette," what reason does he give for not smoking one (39)?
(a) He is trying to save money for the house.
(b) He is completely out of both cigarettes and money.
(c) His wife has demanded that he stop smoking.
(d) Gallows might see him and tell Battersby.

4. How did Fitz meet Teena?
(a) She was Alfy's girlfriend.
(b) She worked with Syl.
(c) She lived in Poor's building.
(d) She is Nobby's cousin.

5. What is Battersby's sister irritated about when she comes downstairs to where Battersby's friends have gathered?
(a) They have made a mess.
(b) They are all hitting on Matilda.
(c) They are smoking marijuana.
(d) They did not include her in their plans.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Bat get angry at Gallows for trying to do during the brief blackout in Bat's apartment building?

2. Which of Bat's friends hopes to live in the basement of the house they are planning to buy?

3. When they are smoking in the park, where does Poor offer to take Harry later that evening?

4. What do Battersby and Harry go out to get when Battersby's friends gather at his apartment?

5. In what area of London is the novel set?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Battersby often listen to on his radio, and why did he stop?

2. What is ironic about the conversation that Alfy, Nobby, and Syl have about Harry's banjo, and what does this conversation reveal about the men?

3. What is ironic about the way Syl's West Indian origins were exposed to his landlord?

4. What does Battersby mean when he tells Alfonso that the weather forecaster is talking about "depression and high pressure" and that these are "things the boys know about" (4)?

5. What observations does the narrator make about hidden ambition before telling the story of how Gallows came to England?

6. What is ironic about the story of Fitz's marriage?

7. How does the sentence "I mean, you think it have a lot of obeah and black magic in the West Indies, but if you listen to some of these Nordics" illustrate the unusual aspects of this book's narrative voice?

8. Describe the talent of Battersby's that the narrator talks about on pages 6 and 7.

9. What number does Bat imagine giving his apartment, and why is this important to him?

10. How did Gallows come to meet Battersby and his friends?

(see the answer keys)

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