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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. By what familyar nickname does the blind man call the narrator?
(a) Dude
(b) Bub
(c) Bro
(d) Senor

2. According to the narrator’s wife’s story, how did the blind man meet his wife?
(a) She sat next to him on a bus
(b) She would see him at the library
(c) She worked for him
(d) She volunteered at her church

3. Exasperated by his inability to explain a cathedral to the blind man, the narrator apologizes and says, “The truth is, cathedrals don’t mean” what to him?
(a) Success
(b) The world
(c) Anything special
(d) Godliness

4. What word from the story refers to a bridge for carrying a road or railway across a valley, consisting of a set of arches supported by a row of piers or towers?
(a) Viaduct
(b) Delta
(c) Tunnel
(d) Well

5. At the end of the story, the narrator says, “I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was” what?
(a) Imagining anything
(b) Physically there
(c) Inside anything
(d) In my right mind

6. What does the narrator say causes him problems sleeping?
(a) Dreams
(b) His wife’s snoring
(c) A sore throat
(d) A bad smell

7. What does the narrator give as a response to the narrator’s question of whether he was going to stay with his work?
(a) It would be hard to take a pay cut
(b) It pays the bills
(c) I haven’t had any other offers
(d) What were the options?

8. What does the narrator say his wife writes one or two of every year?
(a) Poems
(b) Essays
(c) Novels
(d) Short stories

9. What vegetable does the narrator’s wife throw when she has an argument with the narrator in the beginning of the story?
(a) A cucumber
(b) A carrot
(c) A potato
(d) A pepper

10. The narrator says in the beginning of the story that the last time his wife saw the blind man was how many years ago?
(a) 7
(b) 2
(c) 10
(d) 4

11. What happens to the television show as the narrator works on his drawing of a cathedral in the story?
(a) It gets louder
(b) It plays on mute
(c) It goes off the air
(d) It transitions to the desert

12. What does the narrator do when the blind man says after the drawing is complete, “Take a look. What do you think?”
(a) He looks at the drawing
(b) He keeps his eyes closed
(c) He begins to weep
(d) He calls for his wife

13. In what periodical did “Cathedral” first appear?
(a) Harper's Magazine
(b) The Pastel Journal
(c) The Atlantic Monthly
(d) Readers Digest

14. How long ago does the narrator’s wife say she and her husband bought their sofa?
(a) 6 weeks ago
(b) 3 years ago
(c) 4 days ago
(d) 2 weeks ago

15. The blind man tells the narrator when he arrives that he hadn’t been on a train in almost how long?
(a) 40 years
(b) 10 years
(c) 30 years
(d) 20 years

Short Answer Questions

1. The blind man discusses his ham radio operator friends in “Guam, in the Philippines, in Alaska, and even” where?

2. Where does the narrator’s wife fall asleep after they’ve smoked marijuana?

3. The narrator says that the “was having a drink and” doing what when he “heard the car pull into the drive” with his wife and the blind man?

4. Of the blind man’s eyes, the narrator says there’s too much white where?

5. How old does the narrator describe the blind man as being?

(see the answer keys)

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