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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. To which of the following does the narrator compare Penny?

2. To which of the following does the narrator compare the layout of the Tiko?

3. Which of the following is the number of bedrooms the narrator, Penny, and Nigel have in their suite at Shanksted?

4. To which of the following does the narrator compare Penny?

5. To which of the following does the narrator compare Dred Douglas?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reasons does the narrator give for not having taken Nigel to their city’s team’s basketball games before the novel?

2. What reason does the narrator give for misliking going to court, despite his skill therein?

3. What prompts Nigel’s retreat into the art-supply closet at his school?

4. How is Tyrod described when the narrator encounters him in Supercargo’s apartment?

5. What inspirations does the narrator cite for his dancing at Octavia’s mansion?

6. To what does the narrator ascribe Supercargo’s trouble with authorities?

7. What scenario do the narrator and Nigel role-play while stuck in traffic on the way to Jo Jo’s?

8. What attractions does the narrator note Shanksted offers?

9. What does the narrator note the Racing Form tracks?

10. What does the narrator recall of Tyrod’s life with his son?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narrator relates the following anecdote: “Last year one of the transactions shareholders had died cradling a telephone. No one noticed until Accounting came by to check his invoices. When they touched his shoulder, his body exhaled” (23-24). What does the brief anecdote indicate about the narrator’s company, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

What function does the narrator’s description of his grandfather (137) have in the novel? How is that function achieved?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the following comment: “Memories could be questioned, distorted, forgotten. But a transcript could not. The physical act of remembering is a bulwark against insanity” (128). Is the comment correct? What in the novel and experience suggest as much, and how do they do so?

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