5
QuizMultiple Choice

Fitzgerald and the Roaring Twenties — Quiz

Question 5 • English Language Arts 11

Read the excerpt from The Great Gatsby . The telephone rang inside, startlingly, and as Daisy shook her head decisively at Tom the subject of the stables, in fact all subjects, vanished into air. Among the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table I remember the candles being lit again, pointlessly, and I was conscious of wanting to look squarely at every one, and yet to avoid all eyes. I couldn’t guess what Daisy and Tom were thinking, but I doubt if even Miss Baker, who seemed to have mastered a certain hardy skepticism, was able utterly to put this fifth guest’s shrill metallic urgency out of mind. To a certain temperament the situation might have seemed intriguing—my own instinct was to telephone immediately for the police. The phone calls that Tom receives during the dinner are an indicator that

Answer
A
he and Daisy are not a happily married couple.
B
he has important business deals in the works.
C
he is trying to prevent his marriage from failing.
D
he would rather be in the city than on the island.

Explanation

The repeated phone calls interrupt dinner and make the others uncomfortable because they are connected to Tom’s affair with Myrtle. Daisy’s reaction suggests she knows about the calls, and the interruption exposes tension and infidelity in their marriage. So the calls indicate that Tom and Daisy are not a happily married couple.

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