The Great Gatsby Chapter 1 Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. At dinner, Daisy shifts between playful charm, intimate statements, and signs of unhappiness. What is the best interpretation of this behavior?
Her cheerfulness confirms that she is unconcerned about Tom’s conduct.
Her changing tone is mainly an attempt to persuade Nick to enter politics.
Her social performance helps conceal dissatisfaction and emotional strain.
Her distress comes from regretting the move from West Egg to East Egg.
2. Which comparison between East Egg and West Egg best reflects Nick’s description in Chapter 1?
East Egg is rural, while West Egg is densely urban.
East Egg is newly developed, while West Egg preserves older estates.
West Egg is the less fashionable of the two, despite its displays of wealth.
West Egg belongs mainly to working families, while East Egg contains all the mansions.
3. What is Jordan Baker known for professionally?
Acting
Horse racing
Journalism
Golf
4. What advice from his father helps explain Nick’s habit of reserving judgment?
Not everyone has had the advantages Nick has had.
Wealth should never be discussed outside the family.
A person’s first impression is usually correct.
People reveal themselves only through competition.
5. After the dinner at the Buchanan home, how does Nick describe his reaction as he leaves?
He feels reassured that Tom and Daisy have a stable marriage.
He feels eager to adopt their fashionable way of life.
He feels certain that Daisy will immediately leave Tom.
He feels confused and a little disgusted.
6. During dinner, Tom repeatedly leaves to answer the telephone. What does Jordan indicate is happening?
Tom is receiving urgent financial news from Chicago.
Gatsby is trying to arrange a meeting with Daisy.
A woman with whom Tom is having an affair is calling from New York.
Tom’s former football teammates are planning a reunion.
7. Which description belongs to Gatsby’s mansion in Chapter 1?
A restrained Georgian Colonial home on East Egg
An imitation of a Normandy Hôtel de Ville with a tower and marble swimming pool
A red-and-white building inherited from Nick’s family
A weather-beaten bungalow rented for eighty dollars a month
8. Tom praises a book warning that white civilization is being threatened. What does this conversation primarily reveal about him?
He wants Nick to invest in a publishing company.
He is trying to become a professional historian.
He distrusts every argument supported by science.
He embraces racist ideas about hierarchy and social decline.
9. How does Nick first see Gatsby at the end of the chapter?
Welcoming guests outside his mansion
Driving away from the Buchanan home
Standing alone and reaching toward a distant green light
Speaking privately with Jordan Baker
10. Nick begins by describing himself as inclined to reserve judgment, yet he also makes sharp judgments about others. What effect does this create?
It proves that Nick reports every event without personal bias.
It establishes tension between Nick’s claimed tolerance and his evaluative narration.
It shows that Nick has already learned every character’s secret.
It indicates that the chapter is narrated by several competing voices.
11. Based only on the closing scene of Chapter 1, what does the green light most strongly introduce?
A distant object of Gatsby’s longing across the bay
Nick’s ambition to enter New York high society
Tom’s concern about losing his inherited wealth
A warning that Gatsby’s property is physically dangerous
12. What practical goal brings Nick Carraway East in 1922?
He plans to study law at Columbia University.
He wants to manage Gatsby’s estate.
He has accepted a newspaper reporting job.
He intends to learn the bond business.
13. Nick sees Gatsby looking toward a light across the water. Which geographic detail makes this scene possible?
Gatsby’s West Egg shore faces toward East Egg across the bay.
Gatsby’s mansion directly borders the Buchanan property.
Nick and Gatsby live on opposite sides of Manhattan.
The green light stands at the entrance to Nick’s driveway.
14. Why is Gatsby’s solitary appearance an effective ending to a chapter dominated by Nick’s visit with the Buchanans?
It resolves the tension in Tom and Daisy’s marriage.
It contrasts the Buchanans’ troubled social world with Gatsby’s isolated longing.
It shifts the novel away from questions of wealth and desire.
It confirms that Gatsby secretly listened to the dinner conversation.
15. Daisy says she hopes her daughter will grow up to be “a beautiful little fool.” What does this remark most clearly suggest?
Daisy believes her daughter lacks intelligence.
Daisy cynically sees ignorance as protection for a woman in her social world.
Daisy expects her daughter to reject wealth and status.
Daisy is repeating advice that Jordan gave her.
16. Who narrates Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby?
Nick Carraway
Jay Gatsby
Tom Buchanan
An unnamed observer