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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where is the blind man going to visit his dead wife’s relatives in the beginning of the story?
(a) Connecticut
(b) Alabama
(c) Alaska
(d) Oregon

2. Where is Moody A.F.B. located?
(a) Georgia
(b) California
(c) New Jersey
(d) Kansas

3. Where was Raymond Carver born?
(a) Jackson, Wyoming
(b) Mountain Home, Idaho
(c) Clatskanie, Oregon
(d) Yakima, Washington

4. What does the blind man remark about the narrator’s television set, saying, “Don’t ask me how, but I can tell”?
(a) That it is a color television set
(b) That the sound seems rough
(c) That it is an old television set
(d) That it is a small television set

5. The narrator says, “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke because, as speculation had it, they couldn’t” what?
(a) Tell how other people did it
(b) See the smoke they exhaled
(c) Fully share the pleasure of it
(d) Avoid burning their faces

6. On the television show about the Church, the narrator describes a famous cathedral shown in what city?
(a) Warsaw
(b) Berlin
(c) Zurich
(d) Paris

7. How does the narrator instruct the blind man to smoke the marijuana in the story?
(a) Hold it as long as you can
(b) Don’t take too much
(c) Inhale slowly
(d) Don’t punish yourself

8. How does the narrator describe the blind man’s shoulders after his arrival?
(a) Stooped
(b) Narrow
(c) Elevated
(d) Broad

9. According to the narrator’s wife, how many people were in attendance at the blind man’s wedding?
(a) 4
(b) 25
(c) 2
(d) 17

10. Along what river does the narrator describe the train going on the route from his home to New York?
(a) The Green River
(b) The Snake River
(c) The Niagara River
(d) The Hudson River

11. What term refers to the portion of a story that introduces the important background information, such as the narrator’s descriptions of his wife’s history with the blind man in “Cathedral”?
(a) Exposition
(b) Rising action
(c) Denouement
(d) Climax

12. What does the blind man do as the narrator attempts to explain cathedrals to him?
(a) He snaps his fingers rhythmically
(b) He runs his fingers through his beard
(c) He hums a tune softly
(d) He taps on the table repeatedly

13. How does the narrator describe the blind man’s attire when he arrives?
(a) Regal
(b) Clownish
(c) Spiffy
(d) Shoddy

14. Where does the narrator spread out the pen and paper when he returns with it in the story?
(a) On the coffee table
(b) On the floor
(c) On the kitchen counter
(d) On the sofa

15. How does the narrator’s wife look at him when he turns on the television during the talk with the blind man after dinner?
(a) With irritation
(b) Enviously
(c) Thankfully
(d) With admiration

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the narrator’s wife go to pick up her blind friend who comes to visit?

2. 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?

3. The narrator’s wife tells him early in the story, “if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d” what?

4. What is the narrator’s response when his wife asks as she comes downstairs, “What do I smell?”

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?

(see the answer keys)

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