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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the narrator’s prayer before dinner in the story?
(a) Pray the phone won’t ring and the food doesn’t get cold
(b) Pray for good weather and sound sleep
(c) Pray for Robert’s wife
(d) Pray the bills are paid and we wake up tomorrow

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

3. How does the narrator describe the physicality of the blind man after his arrival?
(a) Frail
(b) Muscle-bound
(c) Heavy-set
(d) Toned

4. How did the narrator’s wife maintain contact with the blind man since they last saw one another in person?
(a) They communicated by fax machine
(b) They wrote letters to each other
(c) They mailed tapes to each other
(d) They wrote emails to each other

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) See the smoke they exhaled
(b) Avoid burning their faces
(c) Fully share the pleasure of it
(d) Tell how other people did it

Short Answer Questions

1. Of his knowledge of cathedrals, the blind man says that he knows from the television show that they took how many workers to build?

2. Where does the blind man live?

3. The narrator says in the beginning of the story that the last time his wife saw the blind man was when she worked for him in what city?

4. Where did the other half of the coin go that the blind man was left with, according to the narrator?

5. What does the blind man instruct the narrator to do after he’s almost completed the drawing of the cathedral?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where in “Cathedral” does the climax of the narrative take place?

2. Why does the narrator say the blind man is coming to visit in the beginning of the story?

3. What is symbolized through the television set in the story?

4. How does the narrator describe the scene once his wife has gone upstairs after dinner?

5. How did the narrator’s wife come to know the blind man? How is this information revealed in the story?

6. From what narrative perspective is the story told? How does this narrative style affect the reader?

7. How does the narrator describe his experience in the final lines of the story?

8. How does the narrator attempt to describe a cathedral to Robert?

9. How is the theme of alienation illustrated through the protagonist in the story?

10. Where in the story does the protagonist undergo an “epiphany”?

(see the answer keys)

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