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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What happens to the television show as the narrator works on his drawing of a cathedral in the story?
(a) It plays on mute
(b) It goes off the air
(c) It transitions to the desert
(d) It gets louder

2. Where in the narrative does the rising action begin?
(a) When the blind man arrives
(b) When the wife meets the blind man
(c) When the cathedral has been drawn
(d) When the wife gets divorced

3. In what year was “Cathedral” first published in a periodical?
(a) 1981
(b) 1964
(c) 1975
(d) 1992

4. What is the narrator’s prayer before dinner in the story?
(a) Pray for Robert’s wife
(b) Pray for good weather and sound sleep
(c) Pray the phone won’t ring and the food doesn’t get cold
(d) Pray the bills are paid and we wake up tomorrow

5. What is the narrator’s response when his wife asks as she comes downstairs, “What do I smell?”
(a) We thought we’d have us some cannabis
(b) Just incense my dear
(c) I needed a cigarette
(d) I don’t smell anything

6. What does the narrator say causes him problems sleeping?
(a) A bad smell
(b) A sore throat
(c) His wife’s snoring
(d) Dreams

7. The narrator says that his wife first contacted the blind man after how much time had passed since she’d worked for him?
(a) 1 year
(b) 8 months
(c) 5 years
(d) 3 years

8. What was the narrator’s wife’s position when she worked for the blind man?
(a) She was an editor
(b) She was a pianist
(c) She was a reader
(d) She was a secretary

9. How many short stories are included in the anthology Cathedral?
(a) 5
(b) 7
(c) 12
(d) 4

10. How long is the blind man staying with the narrator and his wife in the story?
(a) 1 night
(b) 3 nights
(c) 6 nights
(d) 10 nights

11. How long does the narrator say he’s been in his current position (of employment) when asked by the blind man?
(a) 1 year
(b) 8 months
(c) 3 years
(d) 2 years

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

13. What is playing on the television as the narrator’s wife exits upstairs in the story?
(a) Entertainment news
(b) A game show
(c) A late-night comedy show
(d) The weather report

14. What does the blind man instruct the narrator to do after he’s almost completed the drawing of the cathedral?
(a) To close his eyes
(b) To close his mouth
(c) To say a prayer
(d) To open his mind

15. Travis A.F.B. is described as being near what city in the short story?
(a) Sacramento
(b) Kansas City
(c) Atlantic City
(d) Atlanta

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator give as a response to the narrator’s question of whether he was going to stay with his work?

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

3. What does the blind man remark about the narrator’s television set, saying, “Don’t ask me how, but I can tell”?

4. What are in the bottom of the shopping bag that the narrator gathers for the blind man at night?

5. Where is Moody A.F.B. located?

(see the answer keys)

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