We go along the corridor and through another flat grey door and along another corridor, softly lit

and carpeted this time, in a mushroom colour, browny-pink. Doors open off it, with numbers on
them: a hundred and one, a hundred and two, the way you count during a thunderstorm, to see
how close you are to being struck. It’s a hotel then. From behind one of the doors comes
laughter, a man’s and also a woman’s. It’s a long time since I’ve heard that. We emerge into a
central courtyard. It’s wide and also high: it goes up several storeys to a skylight at the top.
There’s a fountain in the middle of it, a round fountain spraying water in the shape of a
dandelion gone to seed. Potted plants and trees sprout here and there, vines hang down from
the balconies. Oval-sided glass elevators slide up and down the walls like giant molluscs.I know
where I am. I’ve been here before: with Luke, in the afternoons, a long time ago. It was a hotel,
then. Now it’s full of women.I stand still and stare at them. I can stare, here, look around me,
there are no white wings to keep me from it. My head, shorn of them, feels curiously light; as if a
weight has been removed from it, or substance. The women are sitting, lounging, strolling,
leaning against one another. There are men mingled with them, a lot of men, but in their dark
uniforms or suits, so similar to one another, they form only a kind of background. The women on
the other hand are tropical, they are dressed in all kinds of bright festive gear. Some of them
have on outfits like mine, feathers and glister, cut high up the thighs, low over the breasts. Some
are in olden-days lingerie, shortie nightgowns, baby-doll pyjamas, the occasional see-through
negligee. Some are in bathing suits, one-piece or bikini; one, I see, is wearing a crocheted affair,
with big scallop shells covering the tits. Some are in jogging shorts and sun halters, some in
exercise costumes like the ones they used to show on television, body-tight, with knitted pastel
leg warmers. There are even a few in cheerleaders’ outfits, little pleated skirts, outsized letters
across the chest. I guess they’ve had to fall back on a mélange, whatever they could scrounge
or salvage. All wear makeup, and I realize how unaccustomed I’ve become to seeing it, on
women, because their eyes look too big to me, too dark and shimmering, their mouths too red,
too wet, blood-dipped and glistening; or, on the other hand, too clownish. At first glance there’s a
cheerfulness to this scene. It’s like a masquerade party; they are like oversized children,
dressed up in togs they’ve rummaged from trunks. Is there joy in this? There could be, but have
they chosen it? You can’t tell by looking. There are a great many buttocks in this room. I am no
longer used to them. “It's like walking into the past,” says the Commander. His voice sounds
pleased, delighted even. “Don’t you think?” I try to remember if the past was exactly like this. I’m
not sure, now. I know it contained these things, but somehow the mix is different. A movie about
the past is not the same as the past. “Yes,” I say. What I feel is not one simple thing. Certainly I
am not dismayed by these women, not shocked by them. I recognize them as truants. The
official creed denies them, denies their very existence, yet here they are. That is at least
something. “Don’t gawk,” says the Commander. “You’ll give yourself away. Just act natural.”
Again he leads me forward. Another man has spotted him, has greeted him and set himself in
motion towards us. The Commander’s grip tightens on my upper arm. “Steady,” he whispers.
“Don’t lose your nerve.”All you have to do, I tell myself, is keep your mouth shut and look stupid.
It shouldn’t be that hard
1.​ Comparing the woman to “oversized children” (Line 27) suggests that:
a.​ They are immature
b.​ The women are all chubby
c.​ They are young and stupid
d.​ They are vulnerable
e.​ The women are clumsy

2.​ Line 9 is a representation of the following literary device:

3.​ In line 3, what is the significance of the protagonist counting the door numbers in Line 2
to 4?
a.​ She is afraid of being struck by lighting
b.​ She is thinking about how she used count the door numbers back when she
came to the hotel
c.​ The narrator was a mathematician in her past life and missed looking at numbers
d.​ She is trying to figure out which room the Commander is taking her to
e.​ She is comparing the growing door numbers to an approaching negative event

4.​ Lines 20-30, which describe the women’s outfits, serve to:
a.​ Show the narrator's discomfort with fashion
b.​ Present the artificiality of the womans roles
c.​ Celebrate diversity in clothing
d.​ Create a sense of nostalgia for the past
e.​ Make the reader think of Halloween

5.​ The narrator’s reaction to her surroundings can be described as all except:
a.​ Shocked
b.​ Observant
c.​ Intrigued
d.​ Uncertain
e.​ Nostalgic but still skeptical

6.​ The passage suggests all of the following about the Commander except:
a.​ He is familiar with the system on which the hotel works
b.​ He is delighted to be there
c.​ He wants the narrator to keep her nerve
d.​ He is nervous about being spotted
e.​ He is experiencing feelings of nostalgia
7.​ In line 12, when the narrator says that she feels “curiously light”, this most likely tells the
reader:
a.​ She feels nauseous
b.​ There has been a change in the rooms brightness
c.​ She feels liberated from her white wings
d.​ That she has lost some part of her identity
e.​ She feels exposed to others

8.​ When the narrator says, “A movie about the past is not the same as the past,” she is
inferring:
a.​ Movies are unreliable sources of history
b.​ They are not living in the blockbuster film “Back to the Future”
c.​ She wishes she were in a movie
d.​ The past was better than the present
e.​ Memory is shaped and altered by context

9.​ In the passage, when the narrator's recognition of the women as “truants” (Line 34) this
suggests:
I. they are breaking the rules of society
II. they are formally exiled
III. they represent what the the people in power are against
a. I only
b. II only
c. I and III
d. II and III
e. I, II, and III

10.​The narrator in this excerpt feels

1.​ D -
2.​ B -
3.​ E -
4.​ B -
5.​ A -
6.​ D -
7.​ C -
8.​ E -
9.​ C -
10.​C -