View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Gin believe is true about the dead woman on the beach?
(a) Gin and the narrator could have saved her.
(b) Her death was accidental.
(c) She was sent by God.
(d) She was an omen.

2. What is the rhetorical purpose of the anaphora in the narrator's description of the Gold Coast residents having sex?
(a) It forms an ironic contrast with the story's opening.
(b) It highlights the comic understatement of the narrator's response to the situation.
(c) It creates increasing tension as the list continues.
(d) It stresses the similarities between the narrator and these strangers.

3. While he is on the beach, what does the narrator imagine the couples in the high-rises around them are wearing?
(a) Spa robes.
(b) Cocktail attire.
(c) Monogrammed pajamas.
(d) Business suits.

4. What kind of buildings are on the lovers' lane?
(a) Abandoned factories.
(b) Run-down cottages.
(c) Giant warehouses.
(d) Bars and strip clubs.

5. On page 243, there is a reference to "Casanova." Why is this historical figure mentioned?
(a) He was a priest who argued that premarital sex is not a mortal sin.
(b) He was a legendary lover.
(c) He was a poet who wrote about the nobility of faithfulness.
(d) He was a groundbreaking psychiatrist.

6. What technique is employed in the phrase "How adept we were at fumbling" (233)?
(a) Juxtaposition.
(b) Verbal irony.
(c) Paradox.
(d) Oxymoron.

7. What is the tone of the narrator's description of people in Gold Coast apartments having sex?
(a) Wry.
(b) Derisive.
(c) Effusive.
(d) Ghoulish.

8. What technique is used in the sentence "On my fingers your slick scent mixed with the coconut musk of the suntan lotion we’d repeatedly smeared over each other's bodies" (234) ?
(a) Allusion.
(b) Personification.
(c) Imagery.
(d) Metonymy.

9. What does the narrator speculate that the lightening across the water might be doing?
(a) Lighting up the paths of far-away freighters.
(b) Setting Indiana barns on fire.
(c) Chasing the seagulls out of the sky.
(d) Making sea glass on Michigan beaches.

10. Who is the author of "We Didn't"?
(a) Vincent Kowalski.
(b) Perry Katzek.
(c) Yehuda Amichai.
(d) Stuart Dybek.

11. To what British author does the narrator ironically compare himself near the end of the story?
(a) H. G. Wells.
(b) D. H. Lawrence.
(c) Rudyard Kipling.
(d) James Joyce.

12. What does the narrator compare the dead woman's hair to?
(a) A wig.
(b) A horse's tail.
(c) Leaves.
(d) Seaweed.

13. From the context of page 234, what "apocalypse" is the allusion to the Four Horsemen referring to?
(a) Water scarcity.
(b) Global pandemic.
(c) Nuclear annihilation.
(d) Climate change.

14. Which of the following techniques is used in the sentence "How adept we were at fumbling, how perfectly mistimed our timing, how utterly we confused energy with ecstasy" (233)?
(a) Antithesis.
(b) Asyndeton.
(c) Polysyndeton.
(d) Synecdoche.

15. How has the narrator and Gin's relationship changed by the end of the summer?
(a) They argue constantly about trivial things.
(b) The narrator has begun to notice other girls in his neighborhood.
(c) Gin is not comfortable being alone with the narrator.
(d) Gin cries whenever the narrator tries to kiss her.

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is evident in the phrase "feverish plucking and twanging, tom-toms, congas, and gongs" (235)?

2. Who asks the narrator and Gin questions as they try to leave the beach?

3. What is the title of the poem used as an epigraph for this story?

4. What detail on page 233 reveals that some time has passed since the events of the story took place?

5. In what sense is the drowned woman also still constantly in the narrator's thoughts?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 635 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample