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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 does Dupin find in the bank vault?
(a) A piece of string.
(b) Edmund's sister.
(c) Money.
(d) A corpse.

2. The prologue introduces the reader to all of the following EXCEPT _____.
(a) The novel's's setting.
(b) A missing mother and aunt.
(c) Edgar Allan Poe.
(d) Edmund and his sister.

3. When they first meet, in exchange for Edmund's help, what does Dupin agree to do?
(a) Give Edmund money for food.
(b) Help Edmund find his sister.
(c) Help Edmund commit a crime.
(d) Help Edmund write a story.

4. After Edmund returns home at the beginning of the story, what is his most pressing goal?
(a) Find more food.
(b) Find his mother.
(c) Find his sister.
(d) Find his aunt.

5. When Edmund and Mrs. Whitman first meet, what does Mrs. Whitman ask Edmund about Dupin?
(a) If he is still in town.
(b) If he wants to marry her.
(c) If he is trustworthy when drinking.
(d) If he has given up drinking.

Short Answer Questions

1. What two things does this novel incorporate?

2. Why didn't Edmund want to leave his sister alone?

3. Where do the children live?

4. After they discuss Edmund's step-father, who does Dupin send Edmund to speak to at the docks?

5. When Dupin first meets Throck, what does he observes about him?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does it reveal about Dupin's character when he tells Edmund in Chapter Two, "There is a difference between what happens and what we would like to have happen"?

2. How does the locked-room mystery engage the reader?

3. What is the significance of the fact that both Edmund and Dupin have an important person in their lives whom they call Sis?

4. What does the author accomplish in part one by having Dupin tell Edmund that Edmund already has all the facts he needs to solve the crime?

5. What is the significance of the absence of adults in the Prologue?

6. Why do you think the author chose not to reveal Sis's true name?

7. What did Edgar Allan Poe do in his mystery stories that no one had done before, and how does this impact future mystery writers?

8. Why do you think the author has Dupin tell Edmund that he has certain critical information, but refuses to share it with him?

9. How do you think the novel would be different if there were no prologue?

10. Why do you think Edmund continues to trust Dupin, even after reading in Dupin's notebook in Chapter Nine that Dupin thinks his story should end with Sis' death?

(see the answer keys)

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