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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What reason does the narrator give for the casual laborer murdering an old widower?
(a) The laborer was dismissed without pay.
(b) The widower would not give the laborer a raise.
(c) The laborer wanted the old man's antique clocks.
(d) The old man was a callous employer.

2. Who is the author of "Once Upon a Time"?
(a) Grace Newsom.
(b) Nadia Golen.
(c) Nadine Gordimer.
(d) Nancy Greer.

3. What does the man tell his wife to ease her fears the people from the city will come to their house in the suburbs?
(a) The people of the city have no interest in the suburbs.
(b) The people of the city will not know how to get there.
(c) The buses will not take them to the city.
(d) There are police and soldiers and tear-gas to keep them away.

4. Why did the neighborhood alarms often go unanswered after many had them installed?
(a) Pets were setting them off.
(b) Kids would set them off for fun.
(c) They were often on vacation.
(d) They could not tell whose house it was coming from.

5. What does the wife worry the people from the city might come to their home and do some day?
(a) Go for a swim in their beautiful pool.
(b) Throw bombs and destroy all they have.
(c) Tear off the plaque and stream in.
(d) Kidnap their maid and gardener.

6. How was the plaque meant to indicate that the property owner was not racist?
(a) It contained a peace sign.
(b) The man was masked so you could not tell if he was Black or white.
(c) It said "All Are Welcome."
(d) It depicted a Black hand holding a white hand.

7. What adjective is used to describe the gardener in the narrator's tale?
(a) Itinerant.
(b) Patient.
(c) Elegant.
(d) Attentive.

8. What pets does the family in the narrator's story have at home?
(a) A bird and a hamster.
(b) A monkey and a lemur.
(c) Goldfish and a parakeet.
(d) A cat and a dog.

9. What type of people are said to live in the city in the tale the narrator tells herself?
(a) Religious people.
(b) People of a higher caste.
(c) Artistic people.
(d) People of another color.

10. What is the narrator's house built atop?
(a) Stilts.
(b) Undermined ground.
(c) A garbage dump.
(d) Burial grounds.

11. What begins to happen once the riots in the city are suppressed?
(a) People in the suburbs move to the city.
(b) Burglaries in the suburbs increase.
(c) People in the suburbs become less fearful.
(d) People in the city move to the suburbs.

12. What does the narrator describe as "finely tuned" in the night?
(a) The universe.
(b) One's senses.
(c) Machinery.
(d) Her piano.

13. What adjective is used to describe the housemaid in the narrator's tale?
(a) Eccentric.
(b) Itinerant.
(c) Loquacious.
(d) Trustworthy.

14. What "most profound" place does the narrator say men may be deep under her home?
(a) Boats.
(b) Tombs.
(c) Brooks.
(d) Homes.

15. What did thieves do to "somebody's trusted housemaid" (26) after the city riots were suppressed?
(a) Kidnapped her.
(b) Made her tell them where all the family jewelry was.
(c) Stabbed her.
(d) Tied her up and shut her in a cupboard.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator realize is the reason for the creaking sound in her house?

2. What did "a certain novelist" say every writer "ought to write at least once" (23)?

3. What does the narrator stare at in her bed as she listens to the sounds in her house?

4. What did the old widower who was murdered have to protect him?

5. What were the Chopi and Tsonga people the narrator says may have made the wooden instrument she describes when discussing her heart beating?

(see the answer keys)

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