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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. What phenomenon had Klara found magical as a child before finding out its true nature?
(a) Aurora Borealis.
(b) Electricity.
(c) Red tide.
(d) Acid rain.

2. What San Francisco district does Simon describe as feeling "like a fallout shelter" (79) amidst the unrest elsewhere in the world?
(a) The Financial District.
(b) The Castro.
(c) The Waterfront.
(d) The Tenderloin.

3. The title of the novel refers to what aspect of its plot?
(a) The Immortalist is the name of Klara's act.
(b) The Immortalists is the name of Varya's antique shop.
(c) Saul used to call thunder clouds The Immortalists.
(d) Simon uses the term to refer to Klara's recklessness.

4. Gali tells the members of his ballet company often that their "movements must have" (85) what?
(a) Structure.
(b) Grace.
(c) Integrity.
(d) Luminescence.

5. Who is the oldest sibling in the Gold family?
(a) Daniel.
(b) Klara.
(c) Simon.
(d) Varya.

Short Answer Questions

1. How old does Raj say he was when he came from India to the United States?

2. In what month do the Gold siblings visit the fortune teller?

3. How long after Simon's death is AIDS given its official name?

4. What does Daniel say he is doing when Simon asks?

5. To whom does adult Daniel bear a resemblance, according to Klara?

Short Essay Questions

1. How many years pass between the first knock Klara believes Simon is using to communicate with her from the afterlife and the second knock she hears?

2. When the narrator reveals that Raj has "big plans" (113) for overhauling Klara's act, what kind of changes does the narrator depict?

3. What aspects of Robert's character are depicted as those that make him "stand out" (59) to Simon?

4. How is an allusion to the story of Icarus used within the author's depiction of Simon's progression toward the date of his foretold death?

5. What is Robert's reaction to the AIDS epidemic and how does it differ from Simon's?

6. What do the Gold children bring to the fortune teller as payment for her services and why?

7. How does Robert's story about his friend Dante demonstrate the themes of violence and hate?

8. What is the symbolism of the sequins that turn up everywhere inside Klara's home?

9. Compare Varya's ideas about fortune telling with Ruby Singh's.

10. How does the novel's setting within the prologue affect the events of the narrative?

(see the answer keys)

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