The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 4 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What is Stradlater doing when Chapter 4 opens?

   • Correct answer: Shaving in the bathroom and getting ready for a date
   • Arguing with Ackley about borrowing his jacket
   • Writing a composition for his English class
   • Reading his hundred pages of history for Monday in the room

   The chapter opens with Holden watching Stradlater shave in the bathroom as he prepares for his Saturday night date.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why does Holden call Stradlater a 'secret slob'?

   • Stradlater's room is littered with dirty laundry and trash
   • Stradlater cheats on all of his English assignments
   • Correct answer: Stradlater looks well-groomed but keeps personal items like his razor dirty
   • Stradlater pretends to be athletic but never actually exercises

   Holden says Stradlater always looked all right, but his razor was "always rusty as hell and full of lather and hairs" and he never cleaned it, so Holden calls him a secret slob.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What favor does Stradlater ask of Holden?

   • To cover for him with the dorm supervisor
   • Correct answer: To write a descriptive English composition for him
   • To deliver a message to Jane Gallagher downstairs
   • To lend him the red hunting hat Holden bought that morning

   Stradlater asks Holden to write a composition for English, "Anything descriptive," and adds, "Just don't do it too good, is all," because Hartzell knows Holden is his roommate.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Who is Stradlater's date for the evening?

   • A girl from a nearby school whom neither boy has met
   • Ackley's sister, who is visiting for the weekend
   • Sally Hayes, the girl whose picture Ackley keeps picking up
   • Correct answer: Jane Gallagher, who practically lived next door one summer

   Stradlater reveals that his date is Jane Gallagher, which shocks and upsets Holden because Jane is someone he cares about deeply.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What unusual habit did Jane have when she played checkers with Holden?

   • She insisted on always playing with the red pieces
   • Correct answer: She kept her kings in the back row and never moved them
   • She would rearrange the board halfway through each game
   • She refused to jump Holden's pieces out of politeness

   Jane always kept her kings in the back row after they were crowned, never moving them forward; Holden remembers it well enough to ask Stradlater whether she still does it.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does Holden ask Stradlater not to tell Jane?

   • That he lost all the foils on the subway
   • That he is writing Stradlater's paper
   • Correct answer: That he got kicked out of Pencey
   • That he used to caddy for her mother

   Holden asks, "Don't tell her I got kicked out, willya?" and Stradlater agrees.

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7. 7

   Question 7. When Holden tap-dances in the can for Stradlater, who does he pretend to be?

   • His brother D.B., the writer out in Hollywood
   • Hartzell, the teacher who thinks Holden is a hot-shot
   • The drunk leading man of the Ziegfeld Follies
   • Correct answer: The Governor's son, whose father wants him at Oxford

   Holden plays the Governor's son: his father "wants me to go to Oxford," but tap-dancing is "in my goddam blood," and he takes over for the drunk leading man on opening night.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Why is Holden concerned about Stradlater taking Jane out?

   • Correct answer: He thinks Stradlater is only interested in very sexy stuff
   • He is jealous because he wanted to ask Jane out himself that evening
   • He thinks Stradlater will embarrass Pencey Prep in front of Jane
   • He worries Stradlater will bore Jane with sports talk

   Holden says of Stradlater, "Only very sexy stuff interested him," and thinking about the two of them on a date makes Holden "so nervous I nearly went crazy."

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually happened in this chapter?

   • Did Holden go downstairs to the annex to say hello to Jane Gallagher in Chapter 4?

     Didn't happen

     Holden keeps saying he ought to go down and say hello, but he never goes; he tells Stradlater, "I'm not in the mood right now."

   • Did Holden refuse to let Stradlater wear his hound's-tooth jacket?

     Didn't happen

     Stradlater puts on Holden's hound's-tooth jacket, and Holden only tells him to "try not to stretch it all over the place."

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'composition' mean in the context of this chapter?

    • A musical arrangement for an orchestra performance
    • Correct answer: A piece of writing, especially an essay assigned as schoolwork
    • The arrangement of visual elements in a painting or photograph
    • The chemical makeup of a substance studied in science class

    In this context, 'composition' refers to a descriptive essay that Stradlater must write for his English class — the assignment he asks Holden to complete for him.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'conceited' mean as Holden uses it to describe Stradlater?

    • Deeply insecure and in constant need of praise and reassurance
    • Shy and reluctant to draw attention to oneself
    • Correct answer: Excessively proud of oneself and one's appearance; vain
    • Generous and willing to share belongings with others

    'Conceited' means having too high an opinion of oneself; Holden says Stradlater was "madly in love with himself" and that you couldn't rile him easily because "He was too conceited."

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does Holden's memory of Jane's kings in the back row show about her, as he tells it?

    • She was trying to annoy Holden by refusing to play properly
    • She wanted to win every game, no matter what it cost her
    • She never quite learned the rules for moving her kings
    • Correct answer: She cared more about how the kings looked than about using them

    Holden says Jane "just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row," and he still wants Stradlater to "Ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row."

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