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Test Bank for Accounting Principles
12th Edition Weygandt
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CHAPTER 2
THE RECORDING PROCESS
SUMMARY OF QUESTIONS BY LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND BLOOM’S
TAXONOMY
Item LO BT Item LO BT Item LO BT Item LO BT Item LO BT
True-False Statements
1. 1 K 9. 1 K 17. 2 K 25. 3 K 33. 2 K
2. 1 K 10. 1 K 18. 2 K 26. 3 C 34. 3 K
3. 1 K 11. 1 K 19. 2 K 27. 3 K 35. 3 C
4. 1 K 12. 1 K 20. 2 K 28. 3 K 36. 4 K
5. 1 K 13. 1 K 21. 2 K 29. 3 K 37. 4 K
6. 1 K 14. 1 K 22. 2 K 30. 4 K
7. 1 K 15. 2 K 23. 2 K 31. 1 K
8. 1 K 16. 2 K 24. 2 K 32. 1 K
Multiple Choice Questions
38. 1 K 63. 1 C 88. 2 K 113. 3 K 138. 4 C
39. 1 K 64. 1 C 89. 2 K 114. 3 K 139. 1 K
st
40. 1 K 65. 1 K 90. 2 K 115. 3 C 140. 1 K
41. 1 C 66. 1 K 91. 2 K 116. 3 K 141. 1 K
st
42. 1 K 67. 1 K 92. 2 C 117. 3 K 142. 1 K
43. 1 K 68. 1 K 93. 2 K 118. 2 AP 143. 1 K
st
44. 1 K 69. 1 K 94. 2 K 119. 3 K 144. 2 K
45. 1 K 70. 1 C 95. 2 K 120. 3 K 145. 2 K
46. 1 K 71. 1 K 96. 2 K 121. 3 K 146. 2 K
47. 1 K 72. 1 K 97. 2 K 122. 3 K 147. 2 C
st
48. 1 K 73. 1 K 98. 2 K 123. 3 K 148. 3 K
49. 1 K 74. 1 C 99. 2 K 124. 3 K 149. 3 K
st
50. 1 K 75. 1 K 100. 2 K 125. 3 K 150. 4 K
51. 1 K 76. 1 K 101. 2 K 126. 3 K 151. 4 C
52. 1 K 77. 1 C 102. 2 K 127. 3 K 152. 5 K
53. 1 K 78. 1 AP 103. 2 K 128. 3 K 153. 5 K
54. 1 C 79. 1 AP 104. 2 C 129. 3 K 154. 5 K
55. 1 C 80. 1 AP 105. 2 K 130. 3 K 155. 5 K
56. 1 C 81. 2 AP 106. 2 K 131. 3 K 156. 5 K
57. 1 K 82. 1 AP 107. 2 K 132. 4 K 157. 5 K
58. 1 K 83. 1 AP 108. 2 K 133. 4 C 158. 5 K
59. 1 K 84. 1 C 109. 2 C 134. 4 K
60. 1 K 85. 1 AP 110. 2 AN 135. 4 C
61. 1 K 86. 1 AP 111. 3 K 136. 4 K
62. 1 K 87. 2 K 112. 3 K 137. 4 K
Brief Exercises
159. 1 AP 162. 2 AP 164. 2 K 166. 3 AP 168. 4 AP
160. 1 C 163. 2 AP 165. 2 AP 167. 3 AP 169. 4 AP
161. 1 K

st
This question also appears in a self-test at the student companion website.
2-2 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2-2

SUMMARY OF QUESTIONS BY LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND BLOOM’S


TAXONOMY
Exercises
170. 1 AP 175. 1 C 180. 1 C 185. 4 AP 190. 4 AP
171. 1 C 176. 1 C 181. 2 AP 186. 3 AN 191. 4 AP
172. 1 C 177. 1 C 182. 2 C 187. 3 AP 192. 4 AP
173. 1 C 178. 1 C 183. 2 AP 188. 4 AN 193. 4 AN
174. 1 C 179. 2 AP 184. 3 AP 189. 4 AN
Completion Statements
194. 1 K 196. 1 K 198. 2 K 200. 2 K 202. 3 K
195. 1 K 197. 1 K 199. 2 K 201. 2 K 203. 4 K
Short-Answer Essay
205. 1 C 208. 4 AN 211. 2 C 214. 2, 3 S
206. 1 C 209. 2 S 212. 3 C 215. 1 E
207. 1 S 210. 2 C 213. 3 S 216. 1 S

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES BY QUESTION TYPE


Item Type Item Type Item Type Item Type Item Type Item Type Item Type
Learning Objective 1
1. TF 31. TF 50. MC 64. MC 78. MC 160. BE 196. C
2. TF 32. TF 51. MC 65. MC 79. MC 161. BE 197. C
3. TF 38. MC 52. MC 66. MC 80. MC 170. Ex 205. SA
4. TF 39. MC 53. MC 67. MC 82. MC 171. Ex 206. SA
5. TF 40. MC 54. MC 68. MC 83. MC 172. Ex 207. SA
6. TF 41. MC 55. MC 69. MC 84. MC 173. Ex 215. SA
7. TF 42. MC 56. MC 70. MC 85. MC 174. Ex 216. SA
8. TF 43. MC 57. MC 71. MC 86. MC 175. Ex
9. TF 44. MC 58. MC 72. MC 139. MC 176. Ex
10. TF 45. MC 59. MC 73. MC 140. MC 177. Ex
11. TF 46. MC 60. MC 74. MC 141. MC 178. Ex
12. TF 47. MC 61. MC 75. MC 142. MC 180. Ex
13. TF 48. MC 62. MC 76. MC 143. MC 194. C
14. TF 49. MC 63. MC 77. MC 159. BE 195. C
Learning Objective 2
15. TF 24. TF 93. MC 102. MC 118. MC 179. Ex 210. SA
16. TF 33. TF 94. MC 103. MC 144. MC 181. Ex 211. SA
17. TF 81. MC 95. MC 104. MC 145. MC 182. Ex 214. SA
18. TF 87. MC 96. MC 105. MC 146. MC 183. Ex
19. TF 88. MC 97. MC 106. MC 147. MC 198. C
20. TF 89. MC 98. MC 107. MC 162. BE 199. C
21. TF 90. MC 99. MC 108. MC 163. BE 200. C
22. TF 91. MC 100. MC 109. MC 164. BE 201. C

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2-3 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2-3

23. TF 92. MC 101. MC 110. MC 165. BE 209. SA

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2-4 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2-4

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES BY QUESTION TYPE


Learning Objective 3
25. TF 111. MC 119. MC 126. MC 149. MC 212. SA
26. TF 112. MC 120. MC 127. MC 166. BE 213. SA
27. TF 113. MC 121. MC 128. MC 167. BE 214. SA
28. TF 114. MC 122. MC 129. MC 184. Ex
29. TF 115. MC 123. MC 130. MC 186. Ex
34. TF 116. MC 124. MC 131. MC 187. Ex
35. TF 117. MC 125. MC 148. MC 202. C
Learning Objective 4
30. TF 134. MC 150. MC 188. Ex 193. Ex
36. TF 135. MC 151. MC 189. Ex 203. C
37. TF 136. MC 168. BE 190. Ex 208. SA
132. MC 137. MC 169. BE 191. Ex 193. Ex
133. MC 138. MC 185. Ex 192. Ex
Learning Objective 5
152. MC 153. MC 154. MC 155. MC 156. MC 157. MC 158. MC

Note: TF = True-False BE = Brief Exercise C = Completion


MC = Multiple Choice Ex = Exercise SA = Short-Answer Essay

The chapter also contains one set of ten Matching questions and six Short-Answer Essay
questions. A summary table of all learning outcomes, including AACSB, AICPA, and IMA
professional standards, is available on the Weygandt Accounting Principles 12e instructor web
site.
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Describe how accounts, debits, and credits are used to record business transactions .
An account is a record of increases and decreases in specific asset, liability, and owner’s
equity items. The terms debit and credit are synonymous with left and right. Assets, drawings,
and expenses are increased by debits and decreased by credits. Liabilities, owner’s capital,
and revenues are increased by credits and decreased by debits.
2. Indicate how a journal is used in the recording process. The basic steps in the recording
process are (a) analyze each transaction for its effects on the accounts, (b) enter the transaction
information in a journal, and (c) transfer the journal information to the appropriate accounts in
the ledger. The initial accounting record of a transaction is entered in a journal before the data
are entered in the accounts. A journal (a) discloses in one place the complete effects of a
transaction, (b) provides a chronological record of transactions, and (c) prevents or locates
errors because the debit and credit amounts for each entry can be easily compared.
3. Explain how a ledger and posting help in the recording process. The ledger is the entire
group of accounts maintained by a company. The ledger provides the balance in each of the
accounts as well as keeps track of changes in these balances. Posting is the transfer of
journal entries to the ledger accounts. This phase of the recording process accumulates the
effects of journalized transactions in the individual accounts.
4. Prepare a trial balance. A trial balance is a list of accounts and their balances at a given
time. Its primary purpose is to prove the equality of debits and credits after posting. A trial

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balance also uncovers errors in journalizing and posting and is useful in preparing financial
statements.

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2-6 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2-6

TRUE-FALSE STATEMENTS
1. A new account is opened for each transaction entered into by a business firm.
Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

2. The recording process becomes more efficient and informative if all transactions are
recorded in one account.
Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

3. When the volume of transactions is large, recording them in tabular form is more efficient
than using journals and ledgers.
Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

4. An account is often referred to as a T-account because of the way it is constructed.


Ans: T LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

5. A debit to an account indicates an increase in that account.


Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

6. If a revenue account is credited, the revenue account is increased.


Ans: T LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

7. The normal balance of all accounts is a debit.


Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

8. Debit and credit can be interpreted to mean increase and decrease, respectively.
Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

9. The double-entry system of accounting refers to the placement of a double line at the end
of a column of figures.
Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

10. A credit balance in a liability account indicates that an error in recording has occurred.
Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

11. The drawing account is a subdivision of the owner’s capital account and appears as an
expense on the income statement.
Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

12. Revenues are a subdivision of owner’s capital.


Ans: T LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

13. Under the double-entry system, revenues must always equal expenses.
Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

14. Transactions are entered in the ledger first and then they are analyzed in terms of their
effect on the accounts.
Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

15. Business documents can provide evidence that a transaction has occurred.
Ans: T LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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2-7 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2-7

16. Each transaction must be analyzed in terms of its effect on the accounts before it can be
recorded in a journal.
Ans: T LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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17. Transactions are entered in the ledger accounts and then transferred to journals.
Ans: F LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

18. All business transactions must be entered first in the general ledger.
Ans: F LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

19. A simple journal entry requires only one debit to an account and one credit to an account.
Ans: T LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

20. A compound journal entry requires several debits to one account and several credits to
one account.
Ans: F LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

21. Transactions are recorded in alphabetic order in a journal.


Ans: F LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

22. A journal is also known as a book of original entry.


Ans: T LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

23. The complete effect of a transaction on the accounts is disclosed in the journal.
Ans: T LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

24. The account titles used in journalizing transactions need not be identical to the account
titles in the ledger.
Ans: F LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

25. The chart of accounts is a special ledger used in accounting systems.


Ans: F LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

26. A general ledger should be arranged in the order in which accounts are presented in the
financial statements, beginning with the balance sheet accounts.
Ans: T LO3 BT:C K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

27. The number and types of accounts used by different business enterprises are the same if
generally accepted accounting principles are being followed by the enterprises.
Ans: F LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

28. Posting is the process of proving the equality of debits and credits in the trial balance.
Ans: F LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

29. After a transaction has been posted, the reference column in the journal should not be
blank.
Ans: T LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

30. A trial balance does not prove that all transactions have been recorded or that the ledger
is correct.
Ans: T LO4 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

31. The double-entry system is a logical method for recording transactions and results in
equal amounts for debits and credits for each transaction.

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2-9 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2-9

Ans: T LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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32. The normal balance of an expense is a credit.


Ans: F LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

33. The journal provides a chronological record of transactions.


Ans: T LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

34. The ledger is merely a bookkeeping device and therefore does not provide much useful
data for management.
Ans: F LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

35. The chart of accounts is a listing of the accounts and the account numbers which identify
their location in the ledger.
Ans: T LO3 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

36. The primary purpose of a trial balance is to prove the mathematical equality of the debits
and credits after posting.
Ans: T LO4 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

37. The trial balance will not balance when incorrect account titles are used in journalizing or
posting.
Ans: F LO4 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: .5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

Answers to True-False Statements


Item Ans. Item Ans. Item Ans. Item Ans. Item Ans. Item Ans. Item Ans.
1. F 7. F 13. F 19. T 25. F 31. T 37. F
2. F 8. F 14. F 20. F 26. T 32. F
3. F 9. F 15. T 21. F 27. F 33. T
4. T 10. F 16. T 22. T 28. F 34. F
5. F 11. F 17. F 23. T 29. T 35. T
6. T 12. T 18. F 24. F 30. T 36. T

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MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS


38. An account consists of
a. one part.
b. two parts.
c. three parts.
d. four parts.
Ans: c LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

39. The left side of an account is


a. blank.
b. a description of the account.
c. the debit side.
d. the balance of the account.
Ans: c LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

40. Which one of the following is not a part of an account?


a. Credit side
b. Trial balance
c. Debit side
d. Title
Ans: b LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

41. An account is a part of the financial information system and is described by all except
which one of the following?
a. An account has a debit and credit side.
b. An account is a source document.
c. An account may be part of a manual or a computerized accounting system.
d. An account has a title.
Ans: b LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

42. The right side of an account


a. is the correct side.
b. reflects all transactions for the accounting period.
c. shows all the balances of the accounts in the system.
d. is the credit side.
Ans: d LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

43. An account consists of


a. a title, a debit balance, and a credit balance.
b. a title, a left side, and a debit balance.
c. a title, a debit side, and a credit side.
d. a title, a right side, and a debit balance.
Ans: c LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

44. A T-account is
a. a way of depicting the basic form of an account.
b. what the computer uses to organize bytes of information.
c. a special account used instead of a trial balance.
d. used for accounts that have both a debit and credit balance.

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Ans: a LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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45. Credits
a. decrease both assets and liabilities.
b. decrease assets and increase liabilities.
c. increase both assets and liabilities.
d. increase assets and decrease liabilities.
Ans: b LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

46. A debit to an asset account indicates


a. an error.
b. a credit was made to a liability account.
c. a decrease in the asset.
d. an increase in the asset.
Ans: d LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

47. The normal balance of any account is the


a. left side.
b. right side.
c. side which increases that account.
d. side which decreases that account.
Ans: c LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

48. The double-entry system requires that each transaction must be recorded
a. in at least two different accounts.
b. in two sets of books.
c. in a journal and in a ledger.
d. first as a revenue and then as an expense.
Ans: a LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

49. A credit is not the normal balance for which account listed below?
a. Capital account
b. Revenue account
c. Liability account
d. Owner’s Drawings account
Ans: d LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

50. Which one of the following could represent the expanded basic accounting equation? a.
Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Capital + Owner’s Drawings – Revenue – Expenses. b.
Assets + Owner’s Drawings + Expenses = Liabilities + Owner’s Capital + Revenues. c.
Assets – Liabilities – Owner’s Drawings = Owner’s Capital + Revenues – Expenses. d.
Assets = Revenues + Expenses – Liabilities.
Ans: b LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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2 - 14 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 14

51. Which of the following correctly identifies normal balances of accounts?


a. Assets Debit
Liabilities Credit
Owner’s Capital Credit
Revenues Debit
Expenses Credit
b. Assets Debit
Liabilities Credit
Owner’s Capital Credit
Revenues Credit
Expenses Credit
c. Assets Credit
Liabilities Debit
Owner’s Capital Debit
Revenues Credit
Expenses Debit
d. Assets Debit
Liabilities Credit
Owner’s Capital Credit
Revenues Credit
Expenses Debit
Ans: d LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

52. The best interpretation of the word credit is the


a. offset side of an account.
b. increase side of an account.
c. right side of an account.
d. decrease side of an account.
Ans: c LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

53. In recording an accounting transaction in a double-entry system


a. the number of debit accounts must equal the number of credit accounts.
b. there must always be entries made on both sides of the accounting equation.
c. the amount of the debits must equal the amount of the credits.
d. there must only be two accounts affected by any transaction.
Ans: c LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

54. Debits
a. decrease both assets and liabilities.
b. decrease liabilities and increase assets.
c. increase both assets and liabilities.
d. increase liabilities and decrease assets.
Ans: b LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

55. A debit is not the normal balance for which account listed below?
a. Owner’s Drawings
b. Cash

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c. Accounts Receivable
d. Service Revenue
Ans: d LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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56. An accountant has debited an asset account for $1,400 and credited a liability account for
$500. What can be done to complete the recording of the transaction?
a. Nothing further must be done.
b. Debit an owner’s equity account for $900.
c. Debit another asset account for $900.
d. Credit a different asset account for $900.
Ans: d LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

57. An accountant has debited an asset account for $1,300 and credited a liability account for
$600. Which of the following would be an incorrect way to complete the recording of the
transaction?
a. Credit an asset account for $700.
b. Credit another liability account for $700.
c. Credit an owner’s equity account for $700.
d. Debit an owner’s equity account for $700.
Ans: d LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

58. Which of the following is not true of the terms debit and credit?
a. They can be abbreviated as Dr. and Cr.
b. They can be interpreted to mean increase and decrease.
c. They can be used to describe the balance of an account.
d. They can be interpreted to mean left and right.
Ans: b LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

59. An account will have a credit balance if the


a. credits exceed the debits.
b. first transaction entered was a credit.
c. debits exceed the credits.
d. last transaction entered was a credit.
Ans: a LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

60. For the basic accounting equation to stay in balance, each transaction recorded must
a. affect two or less accounts.
b. affect two or more accounts.
c. always affect exactly two accounts.
d. affect the same number of asset and liability accounts.
Ans: b LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

61. Which of the following statements is true?


a. Debits increase assets and increase liabilities.
b. Credits decrease assets and decrease liabilities.
c. Credits decrease assets and increase liabilities.
d. Debits decrease liabilities and decrease assets.
Ans: c LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

62. Assets normally show


a. credit balances.
b. debit balances.
c. debit and credit balances.
d. debit or credit balances.

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2 - 17 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 17

Ans: b LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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2 - 18 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 18

63. An awareness of the normal balances of accounts would help you spot which of the
following as an error in recording?
a. A debit balance in the owner’s drawings account
b. A credit balance in an expense account
c. A credit balance in a liabilities account
d. A credit balance in a revenue account
Ans: b LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

64. If a company has overdrawn its bank balance, then


a. its cash account will show a debit balance.
b. its cash account will show a credit balance.
c. the cash account debits will exceed the cash account credits.
d. it cannot be detected by observing the balance of the cash account.
Ans: b LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

65. Which account below is not a subdivision of owner’s equity?


a. Owner’s Drawings
b. Revenues
c. Expenses
d. Liabilities
Ans: d LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

66. When an owner makes a withdrawal


a. it doesn’t have to be cash, it could be another asset.
b. the owner’s drawings account will be increased with a credit.
c. the owner’s capital account will be directly increased with a debit.
d. the owner’s drawings account will be decreased with a debit.
Ans: a LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

67. The owner’s drawings account


a. appears on the income statement along with the expenses of the business.
b. must show transactions every accounting period.
c. is increased with debits and decreased with credits.
d. is not a proper subdivision of owner’s equity.
Ans: c LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

68. Which of the following statements is not true?


a. Expenses increase owner’s equity.
b. Expenses have normal debit balances.
c. Expenses decrease owner’s equity.
d. Expenses are a negative factor in the computation of net income.
Ans: a LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

69. A credit to a liability account


a. indicates an increase in the amount owed to creditors.
b. indicates a decrease in the amount owed to creditors.
c. is an error.
d. must be accompanied by a debit to an asset account.
Ans: a LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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2 - 19 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 19

70. In the first month of operations, the total of the debit entries to the cash account amounted
to $1,400 and the total of the credit entries to the cash account amounted to $800. The cash
account has a(n)
a. $800 credit balance.
b. $1,400 debit balance.
c. $600 debit balance.
d. $600 credit balance.
Ans: c LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $1,400 − $800 = $600

71. Phast Mail Service purchased equipment for $2,000. Phast paid $500 in cash and signed
a note for the balance. Phast debited the Equipment account, credited Cash and
a. nothing further must be done.
b. debited the Capital account for $1,500.
c. credited another asset account for $500.
d. credited a liability account for $1,500.
Ans: d LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $2,000 − $500 = $1,500

72. Madrid Industries purchased supplies for $1,200. They paid $500 in cash and agreed to
pay the balance in 30 days. The journal entry to record this transaction would include a debit
to an asset account for $1,200, a credit to a liability account for $700. Which of the following
would be the correct way to complete the recording of the transaction?
a. Credit an asset account for $500.
b. Credit another liability account for $500.
c. Credit the Capital account for $500.
d. Debit the Capital account for $500.
Ans: a LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

73. On January 14, Maxine Industries purchased supplies of $900 on account. The entry to
record the purchase will include
a. a debit to Supplies and a credit to Accounts Payable.
b. a debit to Supplies Expense and a credit to Accounts Receivable.
c. a debit to Supplies and a credit to Cash.
d. a debit to Accounts Receivable and a credit to Supplies.
Ans: a LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

74. On June 1, 2016, Barcelona Inc. reported a cash balance of $11,000. During June,
Barcelona made deposits of $3,000 and made disbursements totalling $9,000. What is the
cash balance at the end of June?
a. $5,000 debit balance
b. $14,000 debit balance
c. $5,000 credit balance
d. $4,000 credit balance
Ans: a LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $11,000 + $3,000 − $9,000 = $5,000

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2 - 20 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 20

75. At January 1, 2016, Croc Industries reported owner’s capital of $140,000. During 2016,
Croc had a net loss of $30,000 and owner drawings of $15,000. At December 31, 2016,
the amount of owner’s capital is
a. $ 95,000.
b. $110,000.
c. $125,000.
d. $155,000.
Ans: a LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $140,000 − $30,000 − $15,000 = $95,000

76. Boise Co. pays its employees twice a month, on the 7th and the 21st. On June 21, Boise
Co. paid employee salaries of $6,000. This transaction would
a. increase owner’s equity by $6,000.
b. decrease the balance in Salaries and Wages Expense by $6,000.
c. decrease net income for the month by $6,000.
d. be recorded by a $6,000 debit to Salaries and Wages Payable and a $6,000 credit to
Salaries and Wages Expense.
Ans: c LO1 BT: K Difficulty: Medium TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

77. In the first month of operations for Pendleton Industries, the total of the debit entries to the
cash account amounted to $33,000 ($13,000 investment by the owner and revenues of
$20,000). The total of the credit entries to the cash account amounted to $21,000
(purchase of equipment $8,000 and payment of expenses $13,000). At the end of the
month, the cash account has a(n)
a. $5,000 credit balance.
b. $5,000 debit balance.
c. $12,000 debit balance.
d. $12,000 credit balance.
Ans: c LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $33,000 − $21,000 = $12,000 debit

78. Qwik Company showed the following balances at the end of its first year:
Cash $ 8,700
Prepaid insurance 9,400
Accounts receivable 7,000
Accounts payable 5,800
Notes payable 9,400
Owner’s Capital 2,300
Owner’s Drawings 1,400
Revenues 44,000
Expenses 35,000
What did Qwik Company show as total credits on its trial balance?
a. $52,400
b. $61,500
c. $62,900
d. $70,900
Ans: b LO1 BT: AP Difficulty: Medium TOT: 1.5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA PC: PS
Solution: $5,800 + $9,400 + $2,300 + $44,000 = $61,500

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2 - 21 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 21

79. Bertoli Company showed the following balances at the end of its first year:
Cash $ 4,000
Prepaid insurance 7,000
Accounts receivable 8,000
Accounts payable 4,000
Notes payable 7,000
Owner’s Capital 3,000
Owner’s Drawings 2,000
Revenues 32,000
Expenses 25,000

What did Bertoli Company show as total credits on its trial balance?
a. $14,000
b. $46,000
c. $44,000
d. $48,000
Ans: b LO1 BT: AP Difficulty: Medium TOT: 1.5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA PC: PS
Solution: $4,000 + $7,000 + $3,000 + $32,000 = $46,000

80. During February 2016, its first month of operations, the owner of Solcist Co. invested cash
of $50,000. Solcist had cash revenues of $16,000 and paid expenses of $21,000.
Assuming no other transactions impacted the cash account, what is the balance in Cash
at February 29?
a. $5,000 credit
b. $5,000 debit
c. $45,000 debit
d. $55,000 debit
Ans: c LO1 BT: AP Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $50,000 + $16,000 − $21,000 = $45,000

81. At January 31, 2016, the balance in Bigelow Inc.’s supplies account was $780. During
February, Bigelow purchased supplies of $900 and used supplies of $1,150. At the end of
February, the balance in the supplies account should be
a. $530 debit.
b. $1,030 debit.
c. $530 credit.
d. $830 debit.
Ans: a LO2 BT: AP Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $780 + $900 − $1,150 = $530 debit

82. At December 1, 2016, Dubois Company’s accounts receivable balance was $1,300.
During December, Dubois had credit sales of $7,400 and collected accounts receivable of
$6,000. At December 31, 2016, the accounts receivable balance is
a. $100 debit.
b. $2,700 debit.
c. $100 credit.
d. $2,700 credit.
Ans: b LO1 BT: AP Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $1,300 + $7,400 − $6,000 = $2,700 debit

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2 - 22 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 22

83. At October 1, 2016, Medina Co. had an accounts payable balance of $50,000. During the
month, the company made purchases on account of $35,000 and made payments on
account of $48,000. At October 31, 2016, the accounts payable balance is
a. $37,000.
b. $33,000.
c. $63,000.
d. $133,000.
Ans: a LO1 BT: AP Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $50,000 + 35,000 − $48,000 = $37,000

84. During 2016, its first year of operations, Aida’s Bakery had revenues of $65,000 and
expenses of $35,000. The business had owner’s drawings of $22,000. What is the amount
of owner’s equity at December 31, 2016?
a. $0
b. $8,000 credit
c. $30,000 credit
d. $22,000 debit
Ans: b LO1 BT: C Difficulty: Medium TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $0 + ($65,000 − $35,000) − $22,000 = $8,000

85. On July 7, 2016, Rancho Realty Co. performed cash services of $1,900. The entry to
record this transaction would include
a. a debit to Service Revenue of $1,900.
b. a credit to Accounts Receivable of $1,900.
c. a debit to Cash of $1,900.
d. a credit to Accounts Payable of $1,900.
Ans: c LO1 BT: AP Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

86. At September 1, 2016, Hotel Suites Co. reported owner’s capital of $147,000. During the
month, Hotel Suites generated revenues of $48,000, incurred expenses of $26,000,
purchased equipment for $5,000 and withdrew cash of $3,000. What is the amount of
owner’s capital at September 30, 2016?
a. $161,000
b. $166,000
c. $169,000
d. $171,000
Ans: b LO1 BT: AP Difficulty: Medium TOT: 1.5 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting
Solution: $147,000 + ($48,000 − $26,000) − $3,000 = $166,000

87. The final step in the recording process is to


a. analyze each transaction.
b. enter the transaction in a journal.
c. prepare a trial balance.
d. transfer journal information to ledger accounts.
Ans: d LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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2 - 23 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 23

88. The usual sequence of steps in the transaction recording process is:
a. journal → analyze → ledger.
b. analyze → journal → ledger.
c. journal → ledger → analyze.
d. ledger → journal → analyze.
Ans: b LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

89. In recording business transactions, evidence that an accounting transaction has taken
place is obtained from
a. business documents.
b. the Internal Revenue Service.
c. the public relations department.
d. the SEC.

Ans: a LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

90. After a business transaction has been analyzed and entered in the book of original entry,
the next step in the recording process is to transfer the information to
a. the company’s bank.
b. owner’s equity.
c. ledger accounts.
d. financial statements.

Ans: c LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

91. The first step in the recording process is to


a. prepare financial statements.
b. analyze each transaction for its effect on the accounts.
c. post to a journal.
d. prepare a trial balance.

Ans: b LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

92. Evidence that would not help with determining the effects of a transaction on the accounts
would be a(n)
a. cash register sales tape.
b. bill.
c. advertising brochure.
d. check.

Ans: c LO2 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

93. After transaction information has been recorded in the journal, it is transferred to the
a. trial balance.
b. income statement.
c. book of original entry.
d. ledger.

Ans: d LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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2 - 24 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 24

94. The usual sequence of steps in the recording process is to analyze each transaction,
enter the transaction in the
a. journal, and transfer the information to the ledger accounts.
b. ledger, and transfer the information to the journal.
c. book of accounts, and transfer the information to the journal.
d. book of original entry, and transfer the information to the journal.
Ans: a LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

95. The final step in the recording process is to transfer the journal information to the
a. trial balance.
b. financial statements.
c. ledger.
d. file cabinets.
Ans: c LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

96. The recording process occurs


a. once a year.
b. once a month.
c. repeatedly during the accounting period.
d. infrequently in a manual accounting system.
Ans: c LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

97. A compound journal entry involves


a. two accounts.
b. three accounts.
c. three or more accounts.
d. four or more accounts.
Ans: c LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

98. A journal provides


a. the balances for each account.
b. information about a transaction in several different places.
c. a list of all accounts used in the business.
d. a chronological record of transactions.
Ans: d LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

99. When three or more accounts are required in one journal entry, the entry is referred to as a
a. compound entry.
b. triple entry.
c. multiple entry.
d. simple entry.
Ans: a LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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2 - 25 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 25

100. When two accounts are required in one journal entry, the entry is referred to as a
a. balanced entry.
b. simple entry.
c. posting.
d. nominal entry.
Ans: b LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

101. Another name for a journal is


a. listing.
b. book of original entry.
c. book of accounts.
d. book of source documents.

Ans: b LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

102. The standard format of a journal would not include


a. a reference column.
b. an account title column.
c. a T-account.
d. a date column.

Ans: c LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

103 Transactions in a journal are initially recorded in


a. account number order.
b. dollar amount order.
c. alphabetical order.
d. chronological order.
Ans: d LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

104 A journal is not useful for


a. disclosing in one place the complete effect of a transaction.
b. preparing financial statements.
c. providing a record of transactions.
d. locating and preventing errors.

Ans: b LO2 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

105 A complete journal entry does not show


a. the date of the transaction.
b. the new balance in the accounts affected by the transaction.
c. a brief explanation of the transaction.
d. the accounts and amounts to be debited and credited.

Ans: b LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

106. The name given to entering transaction data in the journal is


a. chronicling.
b. listing.
c. posting.
d.journalizing.

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Ans: d LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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107. The standard form of a journal entry has the


a. debit account entered first and indented.
b. credit account entered first and indented.
c. debit account entered first at the extreme left margin.
d. credit account entered first at the extreme left margin.

Ans: c LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

108. When journalizing, the reference column is


a. left blank.
b. used to reference the source document.
c. used to reference the journal page.
d. used to reference the financial statements.

Ans: a LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

109. On June 1, 2016 Ben Casey buys a copier machine for his business and finances this
purchase with cash and a note. When journalizing this transaction, he will
a. use two journal entries.
b. make a compound entry.
c. make a simple entry.
d. list the credit entries first, which is proper form for this type of transaction.

Ans: b LO2 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

110. Which of the following journal entries is recorded correctly and in the standard format?
a. Salaries and Wages Expense ............................................ 500
Cash ............................................................................ 2,500
Advertising Expense . ......................................................... 2,000
b. Salaries and Wages Expense . ........................................... 500
Advertising Expense . ......................................................... 2,000
Cash ............................................................................ 2,500

c. Cash .................................................................................. 2,500


Salaries and Wages Expense ...................................... 500
Advertising Expense .................................................... 2,000

d. Salaries and Wages Expense ............................................ 500


Advertising Expense .......................................................... 2,000
Cash . ........................................................................... 2,500
Ans: d LO2 BT: AN Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: Analysis AICPA BB: CT AICPA PC: PS

111. The ledger should be arranged in


a. alphabetical order.
b. chronological order.
c. dollar amount order.
d. None of these choices are correct.

Ans: d LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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2 - 28 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 28

112. The entire group of accounts maintained by a company is called the


a. chart of accounts.
b. general journal.
c. general ledger.
d. trial balance.

Ans: c LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

113. An accounting record of the balances of all assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity accounts
is called a
a. compound entry.
b. general journal.
c. general ledger.
d. chart of accounts.

Ans: c LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

114. The usual ordering of accounts in the general ledger is


a. assets, liabilities, owner’s capital, drawings, revenues, and expenses.
b. assets, liabilities, drawings, owner’s capital, expenses, and revenues.
c. liabilities, assets, owner’s capital, revenues, expenses, and drawings.
d. owner’s capital, assets, liabilities, drawings, expenses, and revenues.

Ans: a LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

115. Management could determine the amounts due from customers by examining which
ledger account?
a. Service Revenue
b. Accounts Payable
c. Accounts Receivable
d. Supplies

Ans: c LO3 BT: C Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

116. The ledger accounts should be arranged in


a. chronological order.
b. alphabetical order.
c. financial statement order.
d. order of appearance in the journal.

Ans: c LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

117. A three column form of account is so named because it has columns for
a. debit, credit, and account name.
b. debit, credit, and reference.
c. debit, credit, and balance.
d. debit, credit, and date.

Ans: c LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

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2 - 29 Test Bank for Accounting Principles, Twelfth Edition The Recording Process 2 - 29

118. On August 13, 2016, Accounting Services Co. purchased office equipment for $1,700 and
office supplies of $300 on account. Which of the following journal entries is recorded
correctly and in the standard format?
a. Equipment ....................................................................... 1,700
Account Payable ........................................................... 2,000
Supplies .......................................................................... 300

b. Equipment. ....................................................................... 1,700


Supplies ....................................................................... 300
Accounts Payable ......................................................... 2,000

c. Accounts Payable ............................................................... 2,000


Equipment..................................................................... 1,700
Supplies ....................................................................... 300

d. Equipment ....................................................................... 1,700


Supplies .......................................................................... 300
Accounts Payable. ........................................................ 2,000

Ans: d LO3 BT: AP Difficulty: Medium TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

119. Able2 Company received a cash advance of $800 from a customer. As a result of this
event,
a. assets increased by $800.
b. owner’s equity increased by $800.
c. liabilities decreased by $800.
d. assets and owner’s equity both increased by $800.
Ans: a LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

120. Camper Van Company purchased equipment for $2,300 cash. As a result of this event,
a. owner’s equity decreased by $2,300.
b. total assets increased by $2,300.
c. total assets remained unchanged.
d. owner’s equity decreased and total assets increased by $2,300.

Ans: c LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

121. Beethoven Company provided consulting services and billed the client $3,600. As a result
of this event,
a. assets remained unchanged.
b. assets increased by $3,600.
c. owner’s equity increased by $3,600.
d. assets and owner’s equity both increased by $3,600.

Ans: d LO3 BT: K Difficulty: Easy TOT: 1 min. AACSB: RT AICPA BB: CT AICPA FN: Reporting

FOR
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Another random document with
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go about the work of memory ... but the past was lost to me this
morning. The doors shut and I was marooned in the meager present.

Who was this American who had come to Luxor? and why?

For a moment the serenity which I have so long practiced failed me


and I feared for my life. The long-awaited assassins had finally
come. But then that animal within who undoes us all with his fierce
will to live, grew quiet, accepting again the discipline I have so long
maintained over him, his obedience due less perhaps to my strong
will than to his fatigue, for he is no longer given to those rages and
terrors and exultations which once dominated me as the moon does
the tide: his defeat being my old age’s single victory, and a bitter
one.

I took the pages that I had written and hid them in a wide crack in the
marble-topped Victorian washstand. I then put on a tie and linen
jacket and, cane in hand, my most bemused and guileless
expression upon my face, I left the room and walked down the tall
dim corridor to the lobby, limping perhaps a little more than was
necessary, exaggerating my quiet genuine debility to suggest, if
possible, an even greater helplessness. If they had come at last to
kill me, I thought it best to go to them while I still held in check the
creature terror. As I approached the lobby, I recalled Cicero’s death
and took courage from his example. He too had been old and tired,
too exasperated at the last even to flee.

My assassin (if such he is and I still do not know) looks perfectly


harmless: a red-faced American in a white suit crumpled from heat
and travel. In atrocious Arabic he was addressing the manager who,
though he speaks no English, is competent in French, is accustomed
to speaking French to Occidentals. My compatriot, however, was
obstinate and smothered with a loud voice the polite European
cadences of the manager.

I moved slowly to the desk, tapping emphatically with my cane on


the tile floor. Both turned; it was the moment which I have so long
dreaded: the eyes of an American were turned upon me once again.
Would he know? Does he know? I felt all the blood leave my head.
With a great effort, I remained on my feet; steadying my voice which
has nowadays a tendency to quaver even when I am at ease, I said
to the American, in our own language, the language I had not once
spoken in nearly twenty years, “Can I be of assistance, sir?” The
words sounded strange on my lips and I was aware that I had given
them an ornateness which was quite unlike my usual speech. His
look of surprise was, I think, perfectly genuine. I felt a cowardly relief:
not yet, not yet.

“Oh!” the American stared at me stupidly for a moment (his face is


able to suggest a marvelous range of incomprehension, as I have
since discovered).

“My name is Richard Hudson,” I said, pronouncing carefully the


name by which I am known in Egypt, the name with which I have
lived so long that it sometimes seems as if all my life before was only
a dream, a fantasy of a time which never was except in reveries, in
those curious waking-dreams which I often have these days when I
am tired, at sundown usually, when my mind often loses all control
over itself and the memory grows confused with imaginings, and I
behold worlds and splendors which I have never known yet which
are vivid enough to haunt me even in the lucid mornings: I am dying,
of course, and my brain is only letting up, releasing its images with a
royal abandon, confusing everything like those surrealist works of art
which had some vogue in my youth.

“Oh,” said the American again and then, having accepted my reality,
he pushed a fat red hand toward me. “The name is Butler, Bill Butler.
Glad to meet you. Didn’t expect to find another white ... didn’t expect
to meet up with an American in these parts.” I shook the hand.

“Let me help you,” I said, letting go the hand quickly. “The manager
speaks no English.”

“I been studying Arabic,” said Butler with a certain sullenness. “Just


finished a year’s course at Ottawa Center for this job. They don’t
speak it here like we studied it.”
“It takes time,” I said soothingly. “You’ll catch the tone.”

“Oh, I’m sure of that. Tell them I got a reservation.” Butler mopped
his full glistening cheeks with a handkerchief.

“You have a reservation for William Butler?” I asked the manager in


French.

He shook his head, looking at the register in front of him. “Is he an


American?” He looked surprised when I said that he was. “But it
didn’t sound like English.”

“He was trying to speak Arabic.”

The manager sighed. “Would you ask him to show me his passport
and authorizations?”

I communicated this to Butler who pulled a bulky envelope from his


pocket and handed it to the manager. As well as I could, without
appearing inquisitive, I looked at the papers. I could tell nothing. The
passport was evidently in order. The numerous authorizations from
the Egyptian Government in the Pan-Arabic League, however,
seemed to interest the manager intensely.

“Perhaps ...” I began, but he was already telephoning the police.


Though I speak Arabic with difficulty, I can understand it easily. The
manager was inquiring at length about Mr. Butler and about his
status in Egypt. The police chief evidently knew all about him and the
conversation was short.

“Would you ask him to sign the register?” The manager’s expression
was puzzled. I wondered what on earth it was all about.

“Don’t know why,” said Butler, carving his name into the register with
the ancient pen, “there’s all this confusion. I wired for a room last
week from Cairo.”
“Communications have not been perfected in the Arab countries,” I
said (fortunately for me, I thought to myself).

When he had done registering, a boy came and took his bags and
the key to his room.

“Much obliged to you, Mr. Hudson.”

“Not at all.”

“Like to see something of you, if you don’t mind. Wonder if you could
give me an idea of the lay of the land.”

I said I should be delighted and we made a date to meet for tea in


the cool of the late afternoon, on the terrace.

When he had gone, I asked the manager about him but he, old friend
that he was (he has been manager for twelve years and looks up to
me as an elder statesman, in the hotel at least, since I have lived
there longer), merely shrugged and said, “It’s too much for me, sir.”
And I could get no more out of him.

2
The terrace was nearly cool when we met at six o’clock, at the hour
when the Egyptian sun has just lost its unbearable gold, falling, a
scarlet disc, into the white stone hills across the dull river which, at
this season, winds narrowly among the mud-flats, a third of its usual
size, diminished by heat.

“Don’t suppose we could order a drink ... not that I’m much of a
drinking man, you know. Get quite a thirst, though, on a day like
this.”

I told him that since foreigners had ceased to come here, the bar had
been closed down: Moslems for religious reasons did not use
alcohol.

“I know, I know,” he said. “Studied all about them, even read the
Koran. Frightful stuff, too.”

“No worse than most documents revealed by heaven,” I said gently,


not wanting to get on to that subject. “But tell me what brings you to
these parts?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” said Butler genially, taking
the cup of mint tea which the servant had brought him. On the river a
boat with a red sail tacked slowly in the hot breeze. “The manager
tells me you’ve been up here for twenty years.”

“You must have found a language in common.”

Butler chuckled. “These devils understand you well enough if they


want to. But you....”

“I was an archaeologist at one time,” I said and I told him the familiar
story which I have repeated so many times now that I have almost
come to believe it. “I was from Boston originally. Do you know
Boston? I often think of those cold winters with a certain longing. Too
much light can be as trying as too little. Some twenty years ago, I
decided to retire, to write a book of memoirs.” This was a new,
plausible touch, “Egypt was always my single passion and so I came
to Luxor, to this hotel where I’ve been quite content, though hardly
industrious.”

“How come they let you in? I mean there was all that trouble along
around when the Pan-Arabic League shut itself off from civilization.”

“I was very lucky, I suppose. I had many friends in the academic


world of Cairo and they were able to grant me a special
dispensation.”

“Old hand, then, with the natives?”


“But a little out of practice. All my Egyptian friends have seen fit to
die and I live now as though I were already dead myself.”

This had the desired effect of chilling him. Though he was still young,
hardly fifty, the immediacy of death, even when manifested in the
person of a chance acquaintance, did inspire a certain gravity.

He mumbled something which I did not catch. I think my hearing has


begun to go: not that I am deaf but I have, at times, a monotonous
buzzing in my ears which makes conversation difficult, though not
impossible. According to the local doctor my arteries have hardened
and at any moment one is apt to burst among the convolutions of the
brain, drowning my life. But I do not dwell on this, at least not in
conversation.

“There’s been a big shake-up in the Atlantic community. Don’t


suppose you’d hear much about it around here since from the
newspapers I’ve seen in Egypt they have a pretty tight censorship.”

I said I knew nothing about recent activities in the Atlantic community


or anywhere else, other than Egypt.

“Well they’ve worked out an alliance with Pan-Arabia which will open
the whole area to us. Of course no oil exploitation is allowed but
there’ll still be a lot of legitimate business between our sphere and
these people.”

I listened to him patiently while he explained the state of the world to


me; it seemed unchanged: the only difference was that there were
now new and unfamiliar names in high places. He finished with a
patriotic harangue about the necessity of the civilized to work in
harmony together for the good of mankind: “And this opening up of
Egypt has given us the chance we’ve been waiting for for years, and
we mean to take it.”

“You mean to extend trade?”

“No, I mean the Word.”


“The Word?” I repeated numbly, the old fear returning.

“Why sure; I’m a Cavite Communicator.” He rapped perfunctorily on


the table twice. I tapped feebly with my cane on the tile: in the days
of the Spanish persecution such signals were a means of secret
communication (not that the persecution had really been so great but
it had been our decision to dramatize it in order that our people might
become more conscious of their splendid if temporary isolation and
high destiny); it had not occurred to me that, triumphant, the Cavites
should still cling to those bits of fraternal ritual which I’d conceived
with a certain levity in the early days. But of course the love of ritual,
of symbol is peculiar to our race and I reflected bleakly on this as I
returned the solemn signal which identified us as brother Cavites.

“The world must have changed indeed,” I said at last. “It was a
Moslem law that no foreign missionaries be allowed in the Arab
League.”

“Pressure!” Butler looked very pleased. “Nothing obvious of course;


had to be done though.”

“For economic reasons?”

“No, for Cavesword. That’s what we’re selling because that’s the one
thing we’ve got.” And he blinked seriously at the remnant of scarlet
sun; his voice had grown husky, like a man selling some commodity
on television in the old days. Yet the note of sincerity, whether
simulated or genuine, was unmistakably resolute.

“You may have a difficult time,” I said, not wanting to go on with this
conversation but unable to direct it short of walking away. “The
Moslems are very stubborn in their faith.”

Butler laughed confidently. “We’ll change all that. It may not be easy
at first because we’ve got to go slow, feel our way, but once we know
the lay of the land, you might say, we’ll be able to produce some big
backing, some real backing.”
His meaning was unmistakable. Already I could imagine those
Squads of the Word in action throughout this last terrestrial refuge.
Long ago they had begun as eager instruction teams; after the first
victories, however, they had become adept at demoralization, at
brain-washing and auto-hypnosis, using all the psychological
weapons which our race in its ingenuity had fashioned in the mid-
century, becoming so perfect with the passage of time that
imprisonment or execution for unorthodoxy was no longer
necessary: even the most recalcitrant, the most virtuous man, could
be reduced to a sincere and useful orthodoxy, no different in quality
from his former antagonists, his moment of rebellion forgotten, his
reason anchored securely at last in the general truth. I was also quite
confident that their methods had improved even since my
enlightened time.

“I hope you’ll be able to save these poor people,” I said, detesting


myself for this hypocrisy.

“Not a doubt in the world,” he clapped his hands. “They don’t know
what happiness we’ll bring them.” Difficult as it was to accept such
hyperbole, I believed in his sincerity: he is one of those zealots
without whose offices no large work in the world can be successfully
propagated. I did not feel more than a passing pity for the Moslems:
they were doomed but their fate would not unduly distress them for
my companion was perfectly right when he spoke of the happiness
which would be theirs: a blithe mindlessness which would in no way
affect their usefulness as citizens. We had long since determined
that for the mass this was the only humane way of ridding them of
superstition in the interest of Cavesword and the better life.

“It’s strange, though, that they should let you in,” I said, quite aware
that he might be my assassin after all, permitted by the Egyptian
government to destroy me and, with me, the last true memory of the
mission. I had not completely got over my first impression that Butler
was an accomplished actor, sounding me out before the final victory
of the Cavites, the necessary death and total obliteration of the
person and the memory of Eugene Luther, now grown old with a
false name in a burning land.

If he was an actor, he was a master. He thumped on interminably


about America, John Cave and the necessity of spreading his word
throughout the world. I listened patiently as the sun went abruptly
behind the hills and all the stars appeared in the moonless waste of
sky. Fires appeared in the hovels on the far shore of the Nile, yellow
points of light like fireflies hovering by that other river which I shall
never see again.

“Must be nearly suppertime.”

“Not quite,” I said, relieved that Butler’s face was now invisible. I was
not used to great red faces after my years in Luxor among the lean,
the delicate and the dark. Now only his voice was a dissonance in
the evening.

“Hope the food’s edible.”

“It isn’t bad, though it may take some getting used to.”

“Well, I’ve a strong stomach. Guess that’s why they chose me for this
job.”

This job? could it mean...? but I refused to let myself be panicked. I


have lived too long with terror to be much moved now; especially
since my life of its own generation has brought me to dissolution’s
edge. “Are there many of you?” I asked politely. The day was ending
and I was growing weary, all senses blunted and some confused.
“Many Communicators?”

“Quite a few,” said Butler. “They’ve been training us for the last year
in Canada for the big job of opening up Pan-Arabia. Of course we’ve
known for years that it was just a matter of time before the
government got us in here.”
“Then you’ve been thoroughly grounded in the Arab culture? and
disposition?”

“Oh, sure. May have to come to you every now and then, though, if
you don’t mind.” He chuckled to show that his patronage would be
genial.

“I should be honored to assist.”

“We anticipate trouble at first. We have to go slow. Pretend we’re just


available for instruction while we get to know the local big shots.
Then, when the time comes....” He left the ominous sentence
unfinished. I could imagine the rest, however. Fortunately, nature by
then, with or without Mr. Butler’s assistance, would have removed
me as a witness.

Inside the hotel the noise of plates being moved provided a familiar
reference. I was conscious of being hungry: as the body’s
mechanism jolts to a halt, it wants more fuel than it ever did at its
optimum. I wanted to go in but before I could gracefully extricate
myself Butler asked me a question. “You the only American in these
parts?”

I said that I was.

“Funny nothing was said about there being any American up here. I
guess they didn’t know you were here.”

“Perhaps they were counting me among the American colony at


Cairo,” I said smoothly. “I suppose, officially, I am a resident of that
city. I was on the Advisory Board of the Museum.” This was not
remotely true but since, to my knowledge, there is no Advisory Board
it would be difficult for anyone to establish my absence from it.

“That must be it.” Butler seemed easily satisfied, perhaps too easily.
“Certainly makes things a lot easier for us, having somebody like you
up here, another Cavite, who knows the lingo.”
“I’ll help in any way I can; though I’m afraid I have passed the age of
usefulness. Like the British king, I can only advise.”

“Well, that’s enough. I’m the active one anyway. My partner takes
care of the other things.”

“Partner? I thought you were alone.”

“No. I’m to get my heels in first; then my colleague comes on in a few


weeks. That’s standard procedure. He’s a psychologist and an
authority on Cavesword. We all are, of course—authorities, that is—
but he’s gone into the early history and so on a little more thoroughly
than us field men usually do.”

So there was to be another one, a cleverer one. I found myself both


dreading and looking forward to the arrival of this dangerous person:
it would be interesting to communicate with a good mind again, or at
least an instructed one: though Butler has not given me much
confidence in the new Cavite Communicators. Nevertheless, I am
intensely curious about the Western world since my flight from it. I
have been effectively cut off from any real communion with the West
for two decades. Rumors, stray bits of information sometimes
penetrate as far as Luxor but I can make little sense of them, for the
Cavites are, as I well know, not given to candor while the Egyptian
newspapers exist in a fantasy world of Pan-Arabic dominion. There
was so much I wished to know that I hesitated to ask Butler, not for
fear of giving myself away but because I felt that any serious
conversation with him would be pointless: I rather doubted if he knew
what he was supposed to know, much less all the details which I
wished to know and which even a moderately intelligent man, if not
hopelessly zealous, might be able to supply me with.

I had a sudden idea. “You don’t happen to have a recent edition of


the Testament, do you? Mine’s quite old and out of date.”

“What date?” This was unexpected.

“The year? I don’t recall. About thirty years old, I should say.”
There was a silence. “Of course yours is a special case, being
marooned like this. There’s a ruling about it which I think will protect
you fully since you’ve had no contact with the outside; anyway, as a
Communicator, I must ask you for your old copy.”

“Why certainly but ...”

“I’ll give you a new one, of course. You see it is against the law to
have any Testament which predates the second Cavite Council.”

I was beginning to understand: after the schism a second Council


had been inevitable even though no reference to it has ever
appeared in the Egyptian press. “The censorship here is thorough,” I
said. “I had no idea there had been a new Council.”

“What a bunch of savages!” Butler groaned with disgust. “That’s


going to be one of our main jobs, you know, education, freeing the
press. There has been almost no communication between the two
spheres of influence....”

“Spheres of influence.” How easily the phrase came to his lips! All
the jargon of the journalists of fifty years ago has, I gather, gone into
the language, providing the inarticulate with a number of made-up
phrases calculated to blur even their none too clear meanings. I
assume of course that Butler is as inarticulate as he seems, that he
is typical of the first post-Cavite generation.

“You must give me a clear picture of what has been happening in


America since my retirement.” But I rose to prevent him from giving
me, at that moment at least, any further observations on “spheres of
influence.”

I stood for a moment, resting on my cane: I had stood up too quickly


and as usual suffered a spell of dizziness; I was also ravenously
hungry. Butler stamped out a cigarette on the tile.

“Be glad to tell you anything you want to know. That’s my business.”
He laughed shortly. “Well, time for chow. I’ve got some anti-bacteria
tablets they gave us before we came out, supposed to keep the food
from poisoning us.”

“I’m sure you won’t need them here.”

He kept pace with my slow shuffle. “Well, it increases eating


pleasure, too.” Inadvertently, I shuddered as I recognized yet another
glib phrase from the past; it had seemed such a good idea to exploit
the vulgar language of the advertisers. I suffered a brief spasm of
guilt.

3
We dined together in the airy salon which was nearly empty at this
season except for a handful of government officials and
businessmen who eyed us without much interest even though
Americans are not a common sight in Egypt. They were of course
used to me although, as a rule, I keep out of sight, taking my meals
in my own room and frequenting those walks along the river bank
which avoid altogether the town of Luxor.

I found, after I had dined, that physically I was somewhat restored,


better able to cope with Butler. In fact, inadvertently, I actually found
myself, in the madness of my great age, enjoying his company, a
sure proof of loneliness if not of senility. He too, after taking pills
calculated to fill him “chock full of vim and vigor” (that is indeed the
phrase he used), relaxed considerably and spoke of his life in the
United States. He had no talent for evoking what he would
doubtlessly call “the large picture” but in a casual, disordered way he
was able to give me a number of details about his own life and work
which did suggest the proportions of the world from which he had so
recently come and which I had, in my folly, helped create.

On religious matters he was unimaginative and doctrinaire,


concerned with the letter of the commands and revelations rather
than with the spirit such as it was, or is. I could not resist the
dangerous maneuver of asking him, at the correct moment of course
(we were speaking of the time of the schisms), what had become of
Eugene Luther.

“Who?”

The coffee cup trembled in my hand. I set it carefully on the table. I


wondered if his hearing was sound. I repeated my own name, long
lost to me, but mine still in the secret dimness of memory.

“I don’t place the name. Was he a friend of the Liberator?”

“Why, yes. I even used to know him slightly but that was many years
ago, before your time. I’m curious to know what might have become
of him. I suppose he’s dead.”

“I’m sorry but I don’t place the name.” He looked at me with some
interest. “I guess you must be almost old enough to have seen him.”

I nodded, lowering my lids with a studied reverence, as though


dazzled at the recollection of great light. “I saw him several times.”

“Boy, I envy you! There aren’t many left who have seen him with
their own eyes. What was he like?”

“Just like his photographs,” I said, shifting the line of inquiry: there is
always the danger that a trap is being prepared for me. I was
noncommittal, preferring to hear Butler talk of himself. Fortunately,
he preferred this too and for nearly an hour I learned as much as I
shall ever need to know about the life of at least one Communicator
of Cavesword. While he talked, I watched him furtively for some sign
of intention but there was none that I could detect; yet I was
suspicious. He had not known my name and I could not understand
what obscure motive might cause him to pretend ignorance unless of
course he does know who I am and wishes to confuse me,
preparatory to some trap.
I excused myself soon afterwards and went to my room, after first
accepting a copy of the newest Testament handsomely bound in
Plasticon (it looks like leather) and promising to give him my old
proscribed copy the next day.

The first thing that I did, after locking the door to my room, was to
take the book over to my desk and open it to the index. My eye
traveled down that column of familiar names until it came to the L’s.

At first I thought that my eyes were playing a trick upon me. I held
the page close to the light, wondering if I might not have begun to
suffer delusions, the not unfamiliar concomitant of solitude and old
age. But my eyes were adequate and the hallucination, if real, was
vastly convincing: my name was no longer there. Eugene Luther no
longer existed in that Testament which was largely his own
composition.

I let the book shut of itself, as new books will. I sat down at the desk,
understanding at last the extraordinary ignorance of Butler: I had
been obliterated from history; my place in time erased. It was as if I
had never lived.
Three

1
I have had in the last few days some difficulty in avoiding the
company of Mr. Butler. Fortunately, he is now very much involved
with the local functionaries and I am again able to return to my
narrative. I don’t think Butler has been sent here to assassinate me
but, on the other hand, from certain things he has said and not said, I
am by no means secure in his ignorance; however, one must go on.
At best, it will be a race between him and those hardened arteries
which span the lobes of my brain. My only curiosity concerns the
arrival next week of his colleague who is, I gather, of the second
generation and of a somewhat bookish turn according to Butler who
would not, I fear, be much of a judge. Certain things, though, which I
have learned during the last few days about Iris Mortimer make me
more than ever wish to recall our common years as precisely as
possible for what I feared might happen has indeed, if Butler is to be
believed, come to pass, and it is now with a full burden of hindsight
that I revisit the scenes of a half century ago.

2
I had got almost nowhere with my life of Julian. I had become
discouraged with his personality though his actual writings continued
to delight me. As it so often happens in history I had found it difficult
really to get at him: the human attractive part of Julian was undone
for me by those bleak errors in deed and in judgment which
depressed me even though they derived most logically from the man
and his time: that fatal wedding which finally walls off figures of
earlier ages from the present, keeping them strange despite the
most intense and imaginative recreation. They are not we. We are
not they. And I refused to resort to the low trick of fashioning Julian in
my own image of him. I respected his integrity in time and deplored
the division of centuries. My work at last came to a halt and,
somewhat relieved, I closed my house in the autumn of the year and
traveled west to California.

I had a small income which made modest living and careful travel
easy for me ... a fortunate state of affairs since, in my youth, I was of
an intense disposition, capable of the passions and violence of a
Rimbaud without, fortunately, the will to translate them into reality;
had I had more money, or none, I might have died young, leaving
behind the brief memory of a minor romanticist. As it was, I had a
different role to play in the comedy; one for which I was, after some
years of reading beside my natal river, peculiarly fitted to play.

I journeyed to southern California where I had not been since my


service in one of the wars. I had never really explored that exotic
land and I was curious about it, more curious than I have ever been
before or since about any single part of the world. Egypt one knows
without visiting it, and China the same; but that one area of sandy
beaches and orange groves which circles the city of Los Angeles, an
artificial place created from desert and sure to lapse back again into
dust the moment some national disaster breaks its line of life and the
waters no longer flow, has always fascinated me.

I was of course interested in the movies, though they no longer had


the same hold over the public imagination that they had had in
earlier decades when a process of film before light could project,
larger than life, not only on vast screens but also upon the
impressionable minds of an enormous audience made
homogeneous by a common passion, shadowy figures which, like
the filmy envelopes of the stoic deities, floated to earth in public
dreams, suggesting a braver more perfect world where love reigned
and only the wicked died. But then time passed and the new deities
lost their worshipers: there were too many gods and the devotees
got too used to them, realizing finally that they were only mortals,
involved not in magical rites but in a sordid business. Television (the
home altar) succeeded the movies and their once populous and
ornate temples, modeled tastefully on baroque and Byzantine
themes, fell empty, the old gods moving to join the new hierarchies,
becoming the domesticated godlings of television which, although it
held the attention of the majority of the population, did not enrapture,
did not possess dreams or shape days with longing and with secret
imaginings the way the classic figures of an earlier time had. Though
I was of an age to recall the gallant days of the movies, the nearly
mythical power which they had held for millions of people, not all
simple, I was not really interested in that aspect of California. I was
more intrigued by the manners, by the cults, by the works of this
coastal people so unlike the older world of the East and so
antipathetic to our race’s first home in Europe. Needless to say, I
found them much like everyone else, except for minor differences of
no real consequence.

I stayed at a large hotel not too happily balanced in design between


the marble-and-potted-palm décor of the Continental Hotel in Paris
and the chrome and glass of an observation car on a newer train.

I unpacked, telephoned friends most of whom were not home. The


one whom at last I found in was the one I knew the least, a minor
film writer who had married money with great success and had, most
altruistically, given up the composition of films for which the
remaining movie-goers were no doubt thankful. He devoted his time
to assisting his wife in becoming the first hostess of Beverly Hills.
She had, I recalled from one earlier meeting, the mind of a child of
twelve, but an extremely active child and a good one.
Hastings, such was the writer’s name (her name was either Ethel or
Valerie, two names which I always confuse due to a particularly
revolutionary course I once took in mnemonics), invited me
immediately to a party. I went.

It seemed like spring though it was autumn, and it seemed like an


assortment of guests brought together in a ship’s dining room to
celebrate New Year’s Eve though, in fact, the gathering was largely
made up of close acquaintances. Since I knew almost no one, I had
a splendid time.

My hostess, beyond a brilliant greeting, a gold figure all in green with


gold dust in her hair, left me alone. Hastings was more solicitous, a
nervous gray man with a speech impediment which took the form of
a rather charming sign before any word which began with an
aspirate.

“We, ah, have a better place coming up. Farther up the mountains
with a marvelous view of the, ah, whole city. You will love it, Gene.
Ah, haven’t signed a lease yet, but soon.” While we talked he
steered me through the crowds of handsome and bizarre people
(none of them was from California I discovered: most were Central
Europeans or British; those who were not pretended to be one or the
other; some sounded like both). I was introduced to magnificent girls
exactly like their movie selves but since they all tended to look a
great deal alike, the effect was somehow spoiled. But I was a tourist
and not critical. I told a striking blonde that she would indeed be
excellent in a musical extravaganza based upon The Sea Gull. She
thought so too and my host and I moved on to the patio.

Beside a jade-green pool illuminated from beneath (and a little dirty, I


noticed, with leaves floating upon the water: the décor was becoming
tarnished, the sets had been used too long and needed striking.
Hollywood was becoming old without distinction), a few of the quieter
guests sat in white iron chairs while paper lanterns glowed prettily on
the palms and everywhere, untidily, grew roses, jasmine and lilac: it
was a fantastic garden, all out of season and out of place. The
guests beside the pool were much the same; except for one:
Clarissa.

“You know each other?” Hastings’ voice, faintly pleased, was


drowned by our greetings and I was pulled into a chair by Clarissa
who had elected to dress herself like an odalisque which made her
look, consequently, more indigenous than any of the other guests;
this was perhaps her genius: her marvelous adaptiveness.

“We’ll be quite happy here,” said Clarissa, waving our host away. “Go
and abuse your other guests.”

Hastings trotted off; those who had been talking to Clarissa talked to
themselves and beneath a flickering lantern the lights of Los
Angeles, revealed in a wedge between two hills, added the proper
note of lunacy, for at the angle from which I viewed those lights they
seemed to form a monster Christmas tree, poised crazily in the
darkness.

Clarissa and I exchanged notes on the months that had intervened


since our luncheon.

“And you gave up Julian, too?”

“Yes ... but why 'too’?” I was irritated by the implication that I gave up
all things before they were properly done.

“I feel you don’t finish things, Eugene. Not that you should; but I do
worry about you.”

“It’s good of you,” I said, discovering that at a certain angle the


Christmas tree could be made to resemble a rocket’s flare arrested
in space.

“Now don’t take that tone with me. I have your interest at heart.” She
expressed herself with every sign of sincerity in that curious flat
language which she spoke so fluently yet which struck upon the ear
untruly, as though it were, in its homeliness, the highest artifice.

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