R
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K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S A N D E X I T T E S T
Page 12 – activity 1
1 Because his stories contain detailed and realistic descriptions of life in the United
States during the 1920s.
2 Because he spent his time playing football and engaging in social activities instead of studying.
3 Social and financial success.
4 They became more interested in having fun: in going to parties and drinking.
5 Fitzgerald’s natural feelings were in conflict with the fashionable pessimism of the age. In addition, he did not succeed in creating characters who were
“beautiful and damned”: to many they seemed silly and pitiful.
6 Because he wished to have a grandiose lifestyle.
7 Because life was cheaper there.
8 Zelda had a love affair. They drank heavily. They went to
Rome but they hated it because they were not well-known there.
9 Partying and drinking.
10 He was a scriptwriter.
11 Fitzgerald’s heavy drinking.
12 He returned to Hollywood to work as a scriptwriter. There he met and fell in love with a journalist named Sheila Graham.
He continued writing but illhealth kept him in bed and he died before he could finish his last novel, The Last Tycoon.
Page 12 – activity 1
Open answers.
Page 13 – activity 1
1 Nick’s father told him not to criticize anyone because not everyone had had the same advantages he had had.
2 Nick grew up in a midwestern city .
3 Nick’s family had been important for three generations.
4 Nick graduated from New Haven
University in 1915 .
5 Nick felt restless in the United
States because he had enjoyed himself so much in Europe.
6 Nick went East to learn the bond business.
7 Instead of finding rooms in New
York City, Nick rented a small house.
8 To live in his small and ugly house
Nick paid eighty dollars a month.
9 East Egg and West Egg were two unusual land formations on Long
Island .
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S
10 Mr Gatsby’s home was an imitation of a French palace .
11 Daisy was Nick’s second cousin .
12 Nick had known Tom in college .
Page 25 – activity 1
1 They moved from place to place, wherever people were rich and played polo.
2 Nick is a young man from a wealthy midwestern family who has come East to learn the bond business. Tom comes from a very wealthy family. He is a rough and brutal man whose main interest is playing polo.
3 They were never close friends, but Nick had the impression that
Tom wanted him to like him.
4 She is a friend of Daisy’s and a professional golfer.
5 Gatsby.
6 He begins to talk violently about the fall of civilization, and how the “colored races” were taking control of the world.
7 His mistress.
8 She doesn’t think that she should phone him during dinner.
9 He had seen many photographs of her golfing.
10 He feels confused and a little disgusted.
Page 25 – activity 2
Possible answer:
A Visit to an East Egg Mansion
For our series of articles “The Young and the Restless” we visited the exclusive home of Mr and Mrs Tom
Buchanan in the extremely fashionable East Egg, Long Island.
Their house, which once belonged to
Mr Demaine, an important oil man, is a lovely colonial mansion looking over the bay. It is elegant with plenty of delicate french windows and billowing curtains. Its inhabitants are equally elegant, in appearance at least.
Tom Buchanan is a big, rough man, who seems to be mostly interested in polo playing. He and his wife, Daisy, have recently returned from wandering about Europe in search of wealthy people to spend time with and, in Mr Buchanan’s case, to play polo with. The only thing that seemed to excite his interest during my brief stay was, strangely enough, the fall of civilization. He became nearly violent when he talked about the rise of the “colored races.”
Daisy Buchanan is certainly a beautiful young woman, but she seems to have nothing in particular to say. She is a mother, but her daughter seems to be a kind of a toy for her and nothing more.
On the day of our visit we also met one of their friends, Jordan Baker, the famous golfer. She, like Mrs
Buchanan, is a lovely and elegant young woman, but she too gives the impression of being bored, of not having any real purpose in life.
All in all, I did not leave with a very good impression of these people. It seemed to me that if their house and fine clothing were taken away there would be nothing left.
Page 26 – activity 3
1 Father said (that) he would pay for my living costs.
2 A young man at the office said,
“ Why don’t we rent a house together in the country?”
2
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S
3 On the telephone Daisy said, “ We are going to stay .”
4 I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends I did not know very well.
5 My cousin began/started to ask me questions.
6 Tom told us the colored races would push the white race under.
7 I remembered the story about her that I had heard.
8 It seemed to me that Daisy should run out of the house.
Page 27 – activity 1
Open answers.
Page 27 – activity 2
1 beside 2 where 3 with 4 can
5 but 6 away 7 stops 8 how 9 in
Page 36 – activity 1
1 C 2 B 3 D 4 A 5 E 6 B
7 A 8 B 9 B
Page 37 – activity 2
1 I wonder if there are any more newspapers.
2 Do you know where the airport is?
3 I wonder if you have any fresh eggs.
4 I don’t suppose you know if the train to East Egg is on time.
5 Do you have any idea if Jay still lives in that mansion?
6 Could you please tell me when the restaurant opens?
7 Do you know if that store sells newspapers?
8 I don’t suppose you know why she hasn’t come yet.
Page 37 – activity 3
Possible answers:
1 Nick already knew that Tom was a restless, selfish, pleasure-seeking kind of person, so the mistress would not have surprised him. But
Tom’s passionate interest in the rest of world must have seemed out of character. After all, Tom’s main interests in life are being with wealthy people and playing polo.
2 It probably seemed rather cowardly of him not to tell Myrtle the truth: he would never leave his wife because he himself did not want to.
3 It shows that he does not have much regard for the truth, and is a coward. Quite simply he is willing to lie to keep his mistress. We might also say that he has no real concern for Myrtle either, and that he uses her for his own pleasure.
Page 38 – activity 4
Possible answer:
I realized that having a love affair with Tom was a great risk, but living my sad life in the valley of the ashes was too much for me. Did I really want to continue suffering there forever? Did I really want to give up that chance for some happiness now? That is why I kept saying to myself, “You can’t live forever.” In other words, I did not want to continue waiting for my moment of happiness to come.
Page 38 – activity 1
1 B 2 B 3 A 4 A 5 A 6 D
Page 50 – activity 1
1 T 2 F 3 T 4 P 5 F 6 T 7 T 8 P
9 T 10 P 11 F 12 T
3
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S
Page 50 – activity 2
Possible answers:
1 Perhaps because everything else at the parties seemed so false, including Gatsby with his phoney
English accent, that he imagined that the books too had to be fakes used just for decoration.
2 His way of speaking.
3 His smile.
4 He is honest and careful, or at least, so he says.
Page 51 – activity 3
1 Gatsby received many medals fighting in the war.
2 Nick was ill-at-ease walking around the grounds of Gatsby’s mansion.
3 “Good morning,” she said, looking towards me.
4 Nick sat at a table with a man and a loud girl enjoying himself.
5 Gatsby looked out towards the green light smoking his pipe.
6 She listened to the music tapping her feet. (OR: She tapped her feet listening to the music.)
7 I got lost going home.
Page 52 – activity 4
A 1 C 2 B 3 D 4 A
B 1 peeped 2 watching 3 glimpsed
4 staring 5 peeped 6 staring
Page 52 – activity 5
Open answers.
Page 56 – activity 1
1 It meant that the United States did not want to become involved in the problems of other countries.
2 It talked about the hedonistic lifestyle at Princeton University: wild parties, heavy drinking and sexual freedom.
3 It talked about the low-key, prudish and moralistic lifestyle of a small Midwestern town.
4 They used make-up, dressed in new ways, smoked cigarettes, danced to jazz and, in general, rebelled against the Victorian values of the past.
5 He produced automobiles that most working Americans could afford. This meant that roads were built, people travelled more and, as a consequence, spent more money.
6 Illegal bars.
7 Because the sale of alcohol was prohibited in the United States in
1919.
8 The stock market crashed.
Page 56 – activity 2
Open answers.
Page 57 – activity 1
Open answers.
Page 57 – activity 2
1 This was the first time that
Gatsby had ever visited Nick .
2 After talking to Gatsby several times Nick was disappointed because he discovered that Gatsby had little to say .
4
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S
3 Gatsby said that his family was from the Midwest and that now they were all dead .
4 Gatsby went to Oxford because it was a family tradition .
5 When Gatsby’s family died he received a good amount of money .
6 Gatsby told Nick about his life in
Europe but Nick did not believe a word he said .
7 Gatsby said that during the war he had tried very hard to die .
8 Gatsby said that during the war every major government gave him a medal .
Page 68 – activity 1
1 It was a huge, shiny creamcolored car with green leather seats.
2 He didn’t want Nick to get the wrong idea about him from the various stories he had heard.
3 Because something very sad had happened to him in the past before the war.
4 He showed Nick a medal he had received from the government of
Montenegro and a photo of himself with some others at
Oxford.
5 He was shot outside a restaurant
– presumably a gangland killing.
6 He was a gambler.
7 Because he was too smart to get caught.
8 He became embarrassed.
9 In Louisville, Kentucky.
10 He was sitting in a car talking to
Daisy.
11 To give an expensive string of pearls back to Tom.
12 He wanted him to invite Daisy to his house.
Page 68 – activity 2
Possisble answers:
1 She was probably worried that he was with his lover.
2 To attract Daisy.
3 Until then the key element of
Gatsby’s life was unknown to him.
Once he knew why Gatsby had bought the house and thrown all those parties, all the pieces fell together. In other words, he knew the personal reasons for Gatsby’s actions. Gatsby was no longer just a fairly boring, rich man who told a lot of lies and threw a lot of parties. He was a magnificent lover.
Page 68 – activity 3
Open answers.
Page 69 – activity 4
1 D 2 B 3 A 4 A
Page 71 – activity 1
1 F 2 T 3 T 4 T 5 F 6 T 7 T 8 T
9 T
Page 82 – activity 1
A 2 B 6 C 11 D 4 E 9 F EXTRA
HEADING G 7 H 10 I 5 J 8 K 12
L 1 M 3
5
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S
Page 82 – activity 2
4 A
2
M
I
D
1
L
A
W
V A N
5
T A G
9
A
N
17 A S H E S
6 R
W
E
10 S
M I S T
I
14 D
E
R E S S
R U N K
N 19
Y
15
16
C
O
U
A
S T L E S S
R
O
N
A
C
R
A
11
U
20 D
23 P R A C
H
T I C
G
E
21
I
E S
E
R
3
M
L
E
A
B
R
S
12 8
O N D S
L
18
R
U
G
S
D
A M
I
P
F T
O
O R T
E
22
B
O
A
T
S
O
T
O
R
7
M
C K
13
U
N
L
I L
Y
S
I
E
A
R
L Y
Page 84 – activity 1
1 A 2 B 3 C 4 B 5 A 6 D 7 B 8 C
9 B 10 A 11 B 12 A 13 D 14 B 15 C
Page 85 – activity 2
Open answers.
Page 94 – activity 1
1 Because he never accepted his real family. He saw himself as belonging to a different and more wonderful world.
2 With gold and silver mines.
3 He worked for him as a sailor, cleaning man and secretary; he also took care of Cody when he was drunk.
4 She used complex legal strategies to inherit Cody’s money.
5 Because he was worried that
Daisy was going around alone.
6 She did not like West Egg society.
7 Bootlegging, i.e. selling illegal liquor.
8 He owned many drugstores.
9 He wanted to go back to
Louisville and marry her.
10 Nick disagreed with Gatsby when he said that you can repeat the past.
Page 94 – activity 2
Possible answer:
Dear Father,
I know that you told me that whenever
I feel like criticizing somebody I should remember that not everybody has had the advantages I have had. Well, my neighbor, Jay Gatsby, makes me wonder if your advice is always true.
Maybe you have heard of him.
Certainly, there are many legends about him: some say he killed a man, others say he is a relative of King
Wilhelm of Germany. Whatever the truth is, the source of all these
6
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S rumors is clear: his magnificent parties and his magnificent gestures.
I am worried that the source of his wealth is some illegal activity. His family origins are humble indeed, a poor Midwestern family, and only his friendship with the gambler
Wolfshiem can explain his vast wealth.
I, however, know the real reason he has thrown his legendary parties: he wanted to attract a woman, my cousin Daisy! Can you believe it?
Well, I don’t want to criticize but how can you not criticize someone who makes his money through crime just to have a woman? Is he so unsure of himself that only a brightly-lit mansion and champagne and famous people can make her love him again?
Well, I will not go on, but believe me,
Father, your advice is difficult to follow.
Your loving son,
Nick
Page 95 – activity 3
1 He would prefer to go home now.
He’d rather go home now.
2 They would prefer to talk to you directly. They’d rather talk to you directly.
3 Tom would prefer not to meet Jay.
Tom would rather not meet Jay.
4 Jordan would prefer not to talk about Jay Gatsby. Jordan would rather not talk about Jay Gatsby.
5 Jay Gatsby would prefer to see
Daisy. Jay Gatsby would rather see
Daisy.
6 Nick would prefer not to drink too much. Nick would rather not drink too much.
Page 96 – activity 1
Open answers.
Page 96 – activity 2
1 A 2 C 3 A 4 C (and B) 5 B
6 B (and D) 7 B 8 D 9 B
Page 105 – activity 1
1 A 2 D 3 A 4 C 5 B 6 D
Page 106 – activity 2
Possible answers:
1 The hot, humid and oppressive air is like a physical manifestation of the confused, tense and worried state of mind of Tom and Daisy.
Also this oppressive heat corresponds to all the unsaid things that hover over Tom and Daisy.
Finally hot, humid weather in summer generally leads to a thunderstorm, which in our story corresponds to the fight between
Tom and Gatsby.
2 Because he is referring in an ironical fashion to Gatsby’s bootlegging activities which is how he made his money, and not, as
Daisy had said, from building up a chain of drugstores.
3 He obviously feels that a pink tie is in poor taste, and a real Oxford man would most certainly have impeccable taste in clothes.
Page 107 – activity 3A
1 The reporter asked Nick why he wouldn’t help him.
2 Daisy asked if they were going to come over later.
3 Daisy asked Tom where he had gone.
4 Gatsby asked if he had ever been to Montenegro.
5 He asked him where he had gone during the summer.
7
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S
6 Daisy asked what she would do tomorrow and the next day and the next day.
Page 107 – activity 3B
1 “What are you doing in my room?” she asked.
2 “Why don’t you ever tell the truth?” he asked her. (OR: “Why do you never tell the truth?” he asked her.)
3 “Where is our car?” they asked.
4 “Have you eaten yet?” I asked her.
5 “Are you going to Gatsby’s party?” they asked me.
6 “Will you wear your white linen suit?” she asked me.
Page 108 – activity 1
Open answers.
Page 108 – activity 2
1 Tom was in a panic because he was no longer sure about his wife and girlfriend.
2 When they got to New York, they began to argue about how to spend the afternoon .
3 Daisy suffered greatly from the heat .
4 Gatsby stayed at Oxford for five months .
5 Gatsby had the opportunity to go to Oxford because he had been an officer .
6 Tom is very rude to Gatsby .
7 Gatsby told Tom that Daisy had never loved him .
8 According to Gatsby, Daisy didn’t marry him because he was poor .
Page 120 – activity 1
A 8 B 5 C 10 D 2 E 6 F 4 G 7 H 1
I 9 J 3
Page 120 – activity 2
Possible answers:
1 He is telling us that Daisy was living this love affair in a superficial way: she had never really considered what seeing
Gatsby meant to her or anyone else—she just did it. So, at the moment when she made a commitment, she realized for the first time what effects on her life her actions would have.
2 They were probably planning how to avoid having any trouble with the law, and what they would say to the police. As we later learn they were actually planning to leave Long Island altogether.
3 At this point it is clear that Daisy has no intention of leaving Tom, and that she and Tom will face the problem of Myrtle’s death together. The love affair with
Gatsby is completely over, and
Daisy would never dream of asking Gatsby for help at this point. The whole love affair now means nothing to her, and
Gatsby’s five years of effort to attract her have disappeared like his fabulous but vacuous parties.
Page 121 – activity 3
Open answers.
Page 121 – activity 4
Possible answer:
Dear Louise,
As you have probably guessed, I have a lover. His name is Tom and I met him on the train when I was going to New
York to see my sister. He was very handsome and well-dressed. He came up close to me and I could not resist him. I wanted to though, and even
8
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S when I got into a taxi with him for the first time I wanted to leave, but a voice inside me kept saying, “You can’t live forever.” You know what I mean: happiness with George and his gas station just never came, and before I die I want some of life’s happiness for myself. George, though, finally discovered that I was having an affair.
He went mad with jealousy and locked me in my room. He says he is going to take me West. Well, now I am finished.
My love for Tom is destroying me and when I saw him arrive at our gas station this afternoon with his wife I could have died from jealousy. Well, I can see Tom coming round the corner in that big yellow car he was driving before. I’ll just go and stop him. I will write you another letter tomorrow.
Your friend forever,
Myrtle
Page 125 – activity 1
1 He used a terse, colloquial, journalistic style.
2 It was about expatriate Americans living in Paris who travel to Spain.
3 He began his literary career with a novel about the horrors and futility of war, Three Soldiers . He then went on to work in experimental drama, and published a political magazine.
However, he is best remembered for his two great experimental novels, Manhattan Transfer and
U.S.A.
, a trilogy.
4 She wrote mostly about the snobbery and hypocrisy of upperclass New York society, especially that of her youth.
5 He wrote about life in midwestern
America, its prejudices, ignorance and worship of money.
6 The Pulitzer Prize.
7 The Nobel Prize because of the prestige and recognition it brought to American writers in general.
8 Because they were written in a difficult experimental style, and they dealt with controversial subjects such as racism and sex.
9 He worked as a scriptwriter.
Page 126 – activity 2
1 on 2 in 3 for 4 own 5 as 6 while
7 up 8 that or which 9 made
10 more 11 out 12 spite
Page 126 – activity 1
Open answers.
Page 134 – activity 1
1 Because he wanted to wait for
Daisy’s call in case she needed help.
2 Because he had never been in such a magnificent house and, above all, because Daisy lived there.
3 He made her believe that he too came from a wealthy family.
4 He did very well, and even became a captain before he went away to fight.
5 Because she felt the pressure of her wealthy environment to accept invitations from other young men, and to make a decision about her future.
6 Because he was wealthy and seemed like a solid young man with whom she could trust her future.
9
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S
7 He was penniless.
8 He told him that he was better than the “whole bunch of them”.
9 Because he really disapproved of him.
10 He found the expensive dog leash.
11 Because he thought that he had killed his wife.
12 He killed himself.
Page 134 – activity 2
1 illegal 2 neighborhood 3 gangsters
4 bravery 5 able 6 earnings
7 responsible 8 sensational 9 finally
10 peacefully
Page 135 – activity 1
1 C 2 C 3 C 4 A 5 C 6 A 7 D
Page 135 – activity 2
Open answers.
Page 147 – activity 1
1 False – They wrote grotesque lies.
2 False – He cried a little, but this was because he had reached an age when death is no longer a surprise.
3 True
4 True
5 False – He did want to go, but he never got mixed up in things of that sort, i.e. a murder and a suicide.
6 True
7 False – He bought his father a house, and went to visit him two years before his death.
8 True
9 True (But the reader may doubt his version.)
10 False – He shook hands with him because he thought it would be silly not to, since he then saw him as an irresponsible child.
Page 147 – activity 2
Open answers.
Page 148 – activity 1
Possible answer:
This bit of poetry epitomises
Gatsby’s courtship of Daisy: he tried to win her with the magnificence of his wealth. In addition, he does seem like a young man showing off with great physical feats (jumping up and down) to impress his lover.
Page 148 – activity 2
Possible answer:
Jay Gatsby was ashamed of his poor background to begin with, and then he was ashamed of his criminal connections.
Page 148 – activity 3
Possible answers:
1 Gatsby, despite the fact, that he came from an extremely poor family was able to become wealthy.
2 Gatsby did become wealthy, but he did so by becoming involved in criminal activities.
Page 149 – activity 4
Possible answers:
1 He tries to recreate the magical moments that he had with Daisy five years earlier.
2 In the context of the story, Nick’s.
Gatsby does start up his affair with Daisy again, but he cannot eliminate everything that has happened in the meantime:
Daisy’s marriage to Tom, her child and his own illegal activities.
10
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S
Page 149 – activity 5
Possible answers:
1 He means that she comes from a respectable and wealthy family.
2 She becomes for him a kind of goddess of wealth: his ambition to become wealthy and to leave his past of poverty behind, through his love, blends inextricably with her person.
3 He presents her as a superficial and frightened young woman.
Certainly, he shows us why men were attracted to her, but he does not hesitate to show how little she cares for herself – first of all – and then for all those around her.
4 So that she will not understand anything around her; for example, she will not understand that her husband is an unfaithful and brutal.
Page 149 – activity 6
Possible answers:
1 Tom has had love affairs since he first got married but he never once feels that there is anything wrong with them. In fact, he never even tries to hide them particularly, but then he never really faces the situation with
Daisy. In fact, we have the impression that the problem of being honest with Daisy never even crosses his mind.
All he seems to care about is having what he wants, but without making any particular effort. With
Myrtle he does not wish to have to make any effort at all, and so he says that Daisy is Catholic and cannot divorce.
Daisy too never wishes to really face the truth of Tom’s affairs, which she knows about; and in the same way she never tells Tom about Gatsby except when she has to. Also, like her husband, if telling the truth requires an effort or sacrifice she does not want to do it. In the end, she does not even tell her husband that she was driving the car that killed Daisy.
Gatsby, too, is willing to invent any story whatsoever to have
Daisy. In fact, he even invents an entire past. He, too, does not seem to care particularly whether he is telling the truth or not. Telling the truth does not seem to have any real value. Only his suffering makes him tell Nick the truth about his life in the end.
2 When Nick says at the beginning of the story that he considers himself an honest person he probably means this in the simplest possible way, i.e. you must always tell the truth. So from this point of view, he does not remain an honest person: he does not break off his engagement back home when he begins seeing
Jordan Baker, he does not intervene during the court case when Myrtle’s sister says that
Myrtle had no love affair (in fact, he believes that she showed surprising strength of character by not telling the truth!), and, most importantly, he does not tell
Tom that Daisy was driving the car that killed Myrtle.
From another point of view, though, we can say that Nick has gained a more subtle vision of reality during his summer. It is
11
K E Y T O T H E A C T I V I T I E S clear that there would be nothing to be gained by telling the court that Myrtle was having a love affair with Tom and it is difficult to see what the point of telling
Tom about Daisy would have been.
In short, Nick no longer sees things as being either true or false; he begins to see various shades of truth in the world.
Page 149 – activity 7
Possible answers:
1 Tom, Daisy and Jordan.
2 Because at least Gatsby has made a real effort for his love of Daisy, and is even willing to go to prison for her, while Tom, Daisy and
Jordan always take the easy way out.
3 He does not approve of all his lies and his ways in general, and he certainly does not approve of his illegal activities.
Page 149 – activity 8
Possible answers:
1 There does seem to be real love between them, or at least some tenderness, but in the end, theirs seems to be more of an alliance between two rich and spoiled people, as when they both leave their home to escape any unpleasant consequences of
Gatsby’s death.
2 They seem to have been very much in love. For Daisy, though, this love does not stand up against her desires to have a comfortable place in upper-class society. In the end, the only thing she seems to really want is the comfortable life money can provide. The fact that she begins to cry when she sees
Gatsby’s shirts is very revealing.
Gatsby, on the other hand, does seem to really love Daisy, but this love is so closely intertwined with his desire to become somebody important, that, in the end, we feel that he is not that interested in her as a person. When he argues with Tom at the end of the book about Daisy, they seem like two men arguing over an object and not the woman they love.
3 Jordan does not seem to have any real interest in Nick; he is just someone she can spend time with because he has certain characteristics that she likes: he is honest and careful. Nick, too, does not seem particularly interested in
Jordan: at times he feels in love and at other times he doesn’t. In any case, he does not feel the need to end his relationship with his fiancée back home in order to be with Jordan.
4 Theirs is a tragic love story. The squalor and the difficulties of their life lead Myrtle to have her affair with Tom, and certainly George found it impossible to be a loving husband with poverty pressing in on him. In the end, though, George seems to have had a great love for his wife, which came out when she was killed.
© 2007 Black Cat Publishing, an imprint of Cideb Editrice, Genoa, Canterbury
12
E X I T T E S T
1 Answer the following questions.
1 What advice did Nick’s father give him?
2 Why did Nick decide to come East?
3 Why did Tom and Daisy travel to where they traveled?
4 What was Daisy’s relation to Nick?
5 What was Myrtle like?
6 What was the surprising thing that Gatsby told Jordan Baker at the party?
7 What was the unpleasant story that Nick had heard about Jordan
Baker?
8 What kind of people did Jordan Baker hate?
9 Where and when did Daisy meet Jay Gatsby?
10 In what condition was Daisy just before her wedding?
11 Why did Daisy cry when she saw Gatsby’s shirts?
12 What did Gatsby see at night when he looked across the bay to
Daisy’s house?
13 How did Jay Gatsby feel about his parents?
14 Why did Gatsby stop throwing his wonderful parties?
15 What, according to Gatsby and Nick, was magical about Daisy’s voice?
16 Why was the day Myrtle was killed a special day for Nick?
17 After his wife’s death, who did George think Doctor Eckleburg was?
18 Who came to Jay Gatsby’s funeral?
13
E X I T T E S T
2 Say whether the following statements are True (T) or False (F). Then correct the false sentences.
T F
1 Nick Carraway came from a poor family.
2 West Egg was more fashionable than East Egg.
3 Tom was a big, rough man.
4 Doctor T. J. Eckleburg was Daisy’s doctor.
5 Tom told Myrtle that he could not divorce Daisy because he was Catholic.
6 Many people who went to Gatsby’s parties were not actually invited—they just went.
7 The first time Nick saw Jay Gatsby he recognized him immediately.
8 Gatsby had really been to Oxford after the war
9 Gatsby moved to West Egg to be near Daisy.
10 When Gatsby offered Nick a job in the bond business
Nick refused.
11 Mr Cody made Jay Gatsby a wealthy man.
12 Gatsby decided to become rich because he could only marry Daisy if he was a wealthy man.
13 Gatsby thought that he could bring back the moments five years earlier when he and Daisy were in love.
14 Gatsby wanted Daisy to admit that she loved him along with Tom.
15 Gatsby’s car hit and killed Myrtle.
16 It was Tom who told George that Gatsby had been driving the car that killed his wife.
17 Gatsby really did do very well in the war.
18 After her sister’s death, Catherine told the police that
Myrtle had had a love affair with Tom.
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K E Y T O T H E E X I T T E S T
Activity 1
1 That whenever he felt like criticizing someone, to always remember that not everybody had had the same advantages he had had.
2 To learn the bond business.
3 They traveled to wherever people were rich and played polo.
4 She was his second cousin.
5 She was in her mid-thirties, a bit heavy, not beautiful, but rather sensual.
6 That he wanted her to tell Nick to invite Daisy to Nick’s house.
7 That she had moved a ball during a golf tournament in order to win.
8 Careless people (like herself).
9 She met him in her hometown,
Louisville, Kentucky just before the war.
10 She was very drunk.
11 Because, she said, she had never seen such beautiful shirts before.
12 A green light at the end of her dock.
13 He did not see them as his real parents because he felt that he belonged to a totally different and more wonderful world.
14 Because he had already become reunited with Daisy, and the only reason he had thrown his parties in the first place was to attract
Daisy.
15 It was full of money.
16 It was his thirtieth birthday.
17 God.
18 Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s father and the man with the enormous round glasses.
Activity 2
1 False – His family had been wealthy for three generations.
2 False – East Egg was more fashionable, i.e. it was where the people with “old money” lived.
3 True.
4 False – He was the man who appeared on the billboard in the valley of ashes, whom George identified with God.
5 False – He told Myrtle that Daisy was Catholic and therefore they could not get divorced.
6 True.
7 False – He talked to him for a while before Gatsby told him who he was.
8 True.
9 True.
10 True.
11 False – Gatsby did not become wealthy until he began to work for
Mr Wolfshiem.
12 False – Already as a young man,
Gatsby had decided that he wanted to become wealthy. In fact, he changed his name from
James Gatz to Jay Gatsby when he was seventeen.
13 True.
14 False – He wanted her to admit that she had never loved Tom.
15 True.
16 True.
17 True.
18 False – She told them that her sister had had a happy marriage.
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