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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 metaphorically compare the house to?
(a) An elderly unmarried woman.
(b) A closed umbrella.
(c) A bomb shelter.
(d) A zoo.

2. 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?
(a) It reinforces how helpless and pointless the technology is in the face of nature's power.
(b) It reminds the reader of the death of the family.
(c) It clarifies the order in which the house is burning, because the house can still "speak."
(d) It reminds the reader that the house is a living thing.

3. In which city does the story take place?
(a) Allendale.
(b) San Francisco.
(c) Petaluma.
(d) Sacramento.

4. During the fire, what does Bradbury compare the house's dialogue to?
(a) The poem "There Will Come Soft Rains."
(b) The epilogue of a play.
(c) A nursery rhyme.
(d) A person's last words.

5. "Mr. Featherstone" is an example of what literary technique?
(a) Oxymoron.
(b) Kenning.
(c) Paradox.
(d) Epithet.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is the best descriptor of the mood of the scene in the study, where the poem is read and music plays as a cigar slowly burns down to ash?

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

3. What has happened to the city around the house?

4. Who is the author of the poem that the house reads after dinner?

5. What does Bradbury say that the house is angry about when the dog shows up?

(see the answer key)

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