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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 Edmund see in the mausoleum?
(a) Nothing.
(b) A corpse.
(c) A button.
(d) A ghost.

2. With whom is Dupin's second encounter at the cemetery?
(a) Throck.
(b) Mrs. Whitman.
(c) Edmund.
(d) Mrs. Powers.

3. When they return to Edmund's room after Edmund is attacked, what does Dupin tell Edmund to find?
(a) An encoded message.
(b) The newspaper the food is wrapped in.
(c) His notebook.
(d) His wallet.

4. What does Edmund bring with him to rescue his sister?
(a) Poe's knife.
(b) Throck's gun.
(c) Poe's gun.
(d) A kitchen knife.

5. For what reason does Dupin believe Edmund's sister was abducted?
(a) So she could lead Edmund out of his room.
(b) So she could assist with the bank robbery.
(c) So she could lead Rachett to Edward's mother.
(d) So she could be held for ransom.

Short Answer Questions

1. When he returns to the cemetery to find Dupin, who does Edmund see?

2. When Poe arrives at the scene where Edmund is trying to rescue his sister, how does he say he figured out the meaning of the decoded message?

3. When introducing him to her guests, how does Mrs. Whitman refer to Dupin?

4. What does Poe tell Edmund about his sister at the end of the story?

5. What does Dupin admit to Edmund about himself?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Edmund's character change by Chapter 18, compared to the Prologue?

2. What is the significance, in Chapter 16, of Edmund throwing himself at a man with a gun?

3. What is the symbolism, in Chapter 13, of Dupin's imagining that Helen's mothers guests are demons wearing masks of black death?

4. Do you think Poe is a coward for giving up on marrying Helen because, as he says, too many timid people feel threatened by his power as a writer?

5. How do you think Edmund felt upon reading the beginning of Poe's story, and seeing the name "Edgar" changed to "Edmund"? Do you think it made him regret having torn up the rest of the story?

6. What is the symbolism in Chapter 19 of Edmund's grabbing Poe's story and threatening to rip it up if Poe does not help him?

7. How does the final chase scene in Chapter 21 differ from the rest of the novel?

8. What can the reader learn about the real-life Poe in this novel?

9. Why is it significant in Chapter 19 that Edmund decodes an important riddle while all the adults around him sleep?

10. Why do you think Poe drops the remainder of his story on the ground before walking away from Edward for the last time?

(see the answer keys)

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