View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When the narrator’s wife first contacted the blind man after working for him, she called him from what facility?
(a) A Navy Base
(b) An Air Force Base
(c) A train station
(d) A hospital

2. When was Raymond Carver born?
(a) 1938
(b) 1944
(c) 1959
(d) 1927

3. As the narrator continues his drawing of the cathedral, he comments near the end of the story, “His fingers rode my fingers as my hand went over the paper. It was like” what?
(a) Nothing else in my life up to now
(b) Surfing on the waves of blindness
(c) Looking through the rainbow
(d) Crossing into another world

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

5. What did the blind man ask the narrator’s wife if he could do on her last day working for him?
(a) Hear her sing
(b) Read a book to him
(c) Kiss her on the cheek
(d) Touch her face

6. In his attempt to describe cathedrals, the narrator tells the blind man that they are built out of stone and sometimes out of what?
(a) Marble
(b) Sandstone
(c) Granite
(d) Slate

7. According to the narrator’s wife’s story, how did the blind man meet his wife?
(a) She sat next to him on a bus
(b) She worked for him
(c) She volunteered at her church
(d) She would see him at the library

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

9. Of his knowledge of cathedrals, the blind man says that he knows from the television show that they took about how many years to build?
(a) 150-200
(b) 50-100
(c) 20-30
(d) 40-60

10. How did the narrator’s wife’s first marriage end?
(a) She and her husband got divorced
(b) Her husband was incarcerated
(c) Her husband committed suicide
(d) Her husband was murdered

11. How long ago does the narrator’s wife say she and her husband bought their sofa?
(a) 2 weeks ago
(b) 3 years ago
(c) 4 days ago
(d) 6 weeks ago

12. In what year was “Cathedral” chosen to appear in The Best American Short Stories?
(a) 1982
(b) 1991
(c) 1975
(d) 1987

13. 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 fifties
(d) In his early twenties

14. In what year was the anthology entitled Cathedral published?
(a) 1947
(b) 1974
(c) 1983
(d) 1962

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

Short Answer Questions

1. When the blind man asks the narrator to describe a cathedral to him, what is the first thing the narrator says?

2. What does the blind man instruct the narrator to do after he’s almost completed the drawing of the cathedral?

3. How did the blind man’s wife die?

4. Travis A.F.B. is described as being near what city in the short story?

5. How many short stories are included in the anthology Cathedral?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 557 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample