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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the blind man’s answer when the narrator’s wife asks if he has a TV?
(a) I have never seen a TV in my life
(b) I prefer the radio
(c) My dear, I have two TVs
(d) They annoy me

2. Why does the narrator’s wife say she shouldn’t be smoking this when she is passed the joint in the story?
(a) I can barely keep my eyes open as it is
(b) It is the devil’s weed
(c) It makes me too talkative
(d) I could get drug tested

3. What kind of paper does the blind man ask the narrator to go get when they are talking late at night?
(a) Wax paper
(b) Heavy paper
(c) Typewriter paper
(d) Tissue paper

4. When the narrator changes the television channel, he says there is something about the Church and what era on?
(a) The Middle Ages
(b) The Computer Age
(c) The Industrial Revolution
(d) The Stone Age

5. In what periodical did “Cathedral” first appear?
(a) Harper's Magazine
(b) The Pastel Journal
(c) The Atlantic Monthly
(d) Readers Digest

6. Where in Portugal does the television show feature a cathedral?
(a) Coimbra
(b) Pombal
(c) Lisbon
(d) Mira

7. What does the blind man take from his back pocket as he and the narrator are talking and watching television late at night?
(a) A wallet
(b) A handkerchief
(c) A book
(d) A bag

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

9. When the narrator’s wife first contacted the blind man after working for him, she called him from what state?
(a) Alabama
(b) Indiana
(c) Tennessee
(d) Missouri

10. The narrator says, “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke because, as speculation had it, they couldn’t” what?
(a) See the smoke they exhaled
(b) Fully share the pleasure of it
(c) Avoid burning their faces
(d) Tell how other people did it

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

12. According to the narrator, the train ride from the blind man’s in-laws’ home to the narrator’s home takes how long?
(a) 2 hours
(b) 9 hours
(c) 5 hours
(d) 12 hours

13. The blind man asks the narrator’s wife if he looks what, when he meets her husband?
(a) Distinguished
(b) Disinterested
(c) Disheveled
(d) Displaced

14. Of the blind man’s eyes, the narrator says there’s too much white where?
(a) In the iris
(b) In the pupil
(c) In the retina
(d) In the cornea

15. The narrator finds a pen for the blind man where in his house?
(a) In a basket on his wife’s table
(b) In his desk drawer
(c) On the kitchen counter
(d) In the garage

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the first thing the narrator says he draws in his attempt to recreate a cathedral for the blind man?

2. How long does the narrator say he’s been in his current position (of employment) when asked by the blind man?

3. How does the narrator describe the blind man’s facial hair?

4. What does the narrator’s wife say when she awakens as the narrator is drawing a cathedral?

5. What is the name of Raymond Carver’s first published book of poems?

(see the answer keys)

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