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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Cathedral.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How old does the narrator describe the blind man as being?
(a) In his late forties
(b) In his late thirties
(c) In his early twenties
(d) In his early fifties

2. 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?
(a) Make him feel comfortable
(b) Get along with him
(c) Pretend to like him
(d) Tell him some stories

3. The narrator states after the blind man’s arrival that he’d always thought what “were a must for the blind”?
(a) Dark glasses
(b) Walking poles
(c) Sandals
(d) Scarves

4. 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?
(a) In my right mind
(b) Inside anything
(c) Physically there
(d) Imagining anything

5. 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 it is a small television set
(c) That the sound seems rough
(d) That it is an old television set

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year was “Cathedral” chosen to appear in The Best American Short Stories?

2. The narrator says in the beginning of the story, “My idea of blindness came from” what?

3. What artistic forms are addressed in “Cathedral”?

4. What term, often used to characterize Raymond Carver’s writing, refers to a style in which the seamier or more mundane aspects of ordinary life are presented in unadorned language?

5. Where does the narrator sit when he returns to the living room with a pen and paper?

(see the answer key)

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