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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: "There Will Come Soft Rains".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Bradbury say is like "an altar with ten-thousand attendants"?
(a) The city.
(b) The yard.
(c) The house.
(d) The incinerator.

2. To what famous dog is this dog an allusion?
(a) Odysseus's dog.
(b) President Lincoln's dog.
(c) Cerberus.
(d) Buck, from Call of the Wild.

3. What "delicacies" does the fire consume upstairs?
(a) The children's toys.
(b) Vinyl record albums by famous singers.
(c) The clothing of every member of the family.
(d) Paintings by well-known artists.

4. What can be seen on the house's west wall?
(a) Water beginning to seep in at the foundation.
(b) Broken glass.
(c) A huge crater.
(d) The silhouettes of the family.

5. What is the probable purpose of emphasizing the roundness of the smoke plume and the great quantity of smoke?
(a) It reminds the reader of a nuclear explosion.
(b) It points out how little chance the house really had.
(c) There is an implied comparison to a woman's skirts.
(d) It reinforces the "technology versus nature" motif.

Short Answer Questions

1. When the narrator tells readers that it seems like the voice-clock is worried that no one will get up, this is an example of what technique?

2. What is the reaction of nature to the end of human existence in the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

3. What is the name of the poem that the house reads after dinner?

4. What is the likely purpose of inserting the house's "dialogue" ("Help, help! Fire! Run, run!") into the scene that describes the fire consuming the house?

5. What is strange about how the nursery reacts to the fire?

(see the answer key)

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