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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What question does the blind man ask the narrator as the narrator begins drawing the cathedral in the story?
(a) Where are you going to put the steeple and the people, bub?
(b) What kind of building are you drawing here, bub?
(c) Never thought anything like this could happen in your lifetime, did you, bub?
(d) Where’s your wife when you need her, huh, bub?

2. What is the name of Raymond Carver’s first published book of poems?
(a) Near Klamath
(b) Surrounding Mountains
(c) Along the beach
(d) Among the Redwoods

3. What does the narrator give as a response to the narrator’s question of whether he was going to stay with his work?
(a) What were the options?
(b) I haven’t had any other offers
(c) It would be hard to take a pay cut
(d) It pays the bills

4. What word from the story refers to a tall, acutely pointed pyramidal roof or roof-like construction upon a tower?
(a) Mesa
(b) Dome
(c) Spire
(d) Bluff

5. 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) 20-30
(c) 50-100
(d) 40-60

Short Answer Questions

1. When was Raymond Carver’s short story collection Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? Published?

2. The blind man asks the narrator’s wife if he looks what, when he meets her husband?

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

4. The narrator says of the blind man that he’d done “a little bit of everything, it seemed, a regular” what?

5. The narrator says in the beginning of the story that the last time his wife saw the blind man was how many years ago?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator describe his wife’s last in-person meeting with the blind man?

2. How does the narrator begin his drawing? What does his wife ask at this time?

3. What activity does the blind man suggest to the narrator during their discussion about cathedrals?

4. What does the narrator offer to Robert after his wife passes out? How does Robert respond?

5. How does the narrator’s wife respond when he turns on the television? What conversation ensues?

6. How is the post-dinner conversation described by the narrator? What prompts him to turn on the television?

7. How is the theme of creativity illustrated through the protagonist in the beginning of “Cathedral”?

8. What drives the narrative plot of “Cathedral”? What effect does this have on the plot’s structure?

9. How is the theme of alienation illustrated through the protagonist in the story?

10. How does the narrator’s wife suggest the narrator act toward Robert when he visits?

(see the answer keys)

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