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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What allusion is present in the weather box's announcement of the rain?
2. Which room recreates the sights, sounds, and smells of the African savanna?
3. In the section about the nursery, Bradbury mentions the "sprockets" in the walls. What are "sprockets"?
4. What is the name of the family that owned the house?
5. To what story do the robot mice allude?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Bradbury use the dates on which the story takes place as a form of foreshadowing?
2. Explain the purpose of the story's allusion to Longfellow's poem "The Children's Hour."
3. What are the poses of the people in their silhouettes on the side of the house, and why are they important to notice?
4. The garbage disposal in the kitchen is referred to as a "metal throat." What techniques are at use here, and what is their purpose?
5. Explain what evidence there is that the house deliberately causes the dog's death.
6. Explain the inclusion of the Sara Teasdale poem in this story.
7. What is the meaning of the silhouettes on the side of the house?
8. What is the difference between the focus of Teasdale's poem and the focus of Bradbury's short story?
9. How do the cleaning mice allude to Cinderella, and what is the purpose of this allusion?
10. Explain what is ironic about the rain in the nursery scenery.
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Explain which details in "There Will Come Soft Rains" are explicitly taken from the history surrounding the dropping of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Offer a thesis about what these details are meant to accomplish and argue whether this is a successful strategy.
Essay Topic 2
Why, at the end of the story, does one voice calmly read poetry while around it the rest of the house is descending into chaos? What historic events might this allude to, and what effect does this detail have on a reader's understanding of the story?
Essay Topic 3
The tone of "There Will Come Soft Rains" is overwhelmingly ironic. But is that the intended mood? Remember that "tone" is the narrator's attitude, while "mood" has to do with the reader's feelings. What feelings do you think that this story is intended to create in the reader, and what textual evidence supports your ideas?
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This section contains 1,109 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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