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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator see his wife doing as she parks the car when she returns with the blind man?
(a) Holding his hand
(b) Laughing
(c) Screaming
(d) Crying

2. What are the supports called on a cathedral that are built to steady a structure by opposing its outward thrusts?
(a) Buttresses
(b) Trusses
(c) Pillars
(d) Crossbeams

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

4. Where is McGuire A.F.B. located?
(a) California
(b) New Jersey
(c) Kansas
(d) Georgia

5. From what narrative perspective is the story of “Cathedral” relayed?
(a) Third-person omniscient point of view
(b) Third-person limited point of view
(c) First-person limited point of view
(d) Second-person omniscient point of view

6. Who is the protagonist of “Cathedral”?
(a) The narrator
(b) Barry Fitzgerald
(c) The narrator’s wife
(d) Robert

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

8. Where did the narrator’s wife fall asleep after overdosing on pills while at Travis A.F.B.?
(a) In the garage
(b) In the bathtub
(c) On the patio
(d) In the basement

9. What slang term does the blind man use at the end of the story to mean “to lie”?
(a) Fib
(b) Slander
(c) Fudge
(d) Evasion

10. Where was Raymond Carver born?
(a) Yakima, Washington
(b) Mountain Home, Idaho
(c) Clatskanie, Oregon
(d) Jackson, Wyoming

11. How does the narrator say he felt about their old sofa (that they replaced) when the blind man arrives?
(a) I’d liked that old sofa
(b) I still remember the day I bought it
(c) I found it so uncomfortable
(d) I hated that crummy sofa

12. What novelist was Raymond Carver’s mentor and teacher?
(a) Henry David Thoreau
(b) Horace Greeley
(c) Margaret Fuller
(d) John Gardner

13. The narrator says that after the death of the blind man’s wife, he was left with half of what kind of coin?
(a) A fifty-dinar Algerian coin
(b) A twenty-peso Mexican coin
(c) A fifty-rupee Indian coin
(d) A ten-dollar New Zealand coin

14. What are the first words that the blind man says to the narrator when he arrives?
(a) So you’re the husband
(b) I believe we have a lot in common
(c) I can’t wait to get to know you
(d) I feel like we’ve already met

15. What kind of pie does the narrator’s wife serve at dinner?
(a) Banana cream pie
(b) Apple pie
(c) Peach pie
(d) Strawberry pie

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the narrator’s prayer before dinner in the story?

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

3. Regarding the view from the train, the narrator says, “going to New York, you should sit” where on the train?

4. What is playing on the television as the narrator’s wife exits upstairs in the story?

5. What does the narrator tell the blind man regarding the strength of the marijuana they are smoking?

(see the answer keys)

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