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

2. What two things does this novel incorporate?
(a) Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot as characters.
(b) Magic and realism.
(c) Police work and amateur sleuthing.
(d) Poe's literary methodology and Poe as a fictional character.

3. How does Dupin determine that Edmund's sister must have gotten out of the room she shares with Edmund?
(a) Through the window.
(b) Through a trap door in the floor.
(c) Through the chimney.
(d) Through the front door.

4. In Dupin and Throck's first meeting, what does Throck tell Dupin he has been hired to do?
(a) Find a relative of Edmund's.
(b) Murder Edmund.
(c) Murder Edmund's sister.
(d) Solve the bank robbery.

5. The first time Edmund and Dupin go to the saloon together, what do they learn?
(a) Sis was abducted from her room.
(b) A man named Smith rented the room across from Edmund's.
(c) A woman was killed by the docks.
(d) The Providence Bank has been robbed.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Dupin learn that Aunty Pru was told of Edmund's mother's location?

2. What is on the scrap of paper Edmund finds in Mrs. Whitman's house?

3. What does Dupin want Edmund to find out at the docks?

4. Where does Edmund go to buy food for himself and Sis?

5. What is the children's room like?

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. 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?

3. Do you think the story would be as effective if it were set in a different time period?

4. When Edmund sees Dupin asleep, surrounded by empty liquor bottles, in Chapter Three, what conflict does it bring about it Edmund's thinking?

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

6. How does the setting reflect Edmund's emotional state?

7. What is the significance of Edmund's direct accusation, in Chapter Nine, that Dupin has abandoned him?

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

9. Do you think Edmund should have stopped to help the old man before returning home?

10. What do you think is Dupin's primary motivation for helping Edmund?

(see the answer keys)

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