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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 will not know how to get there.
(b) There are police and soldiers and tear-gas to keep them away.
(c) The buses will not take them to the city.
(d) The people of the city have no interest in the suburbs.

2. What does the narrator do when she is unable to go back to sleep?
(a) She writes a letter.
(b) She reads a book.
(c) She tells herself a story.
(d) She eats a sandwich.

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

4. What game did the little boy like to play after they installed a speaker at the gates of their home?
(a) Telephone.
(b) Tag.
(c) Hide and seek.
(d) Cops and robbers.

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

6. What did the old widower who was murdered have to protect him?
(a) Fierce dogs.
(b) Security guards.
(c) Guns.
(d) An electronic alarm system.

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

8. What is the man's mother called in the narrator's tale?
(a) The fairy godmother.
(b) The wise old witch.
(c) The good witch.
(d) The wicked witch.

9. What does the husband do to assuage his wife's fears that people from the city might intrude on their home in the suburbs?
(a) He buys her a gun.
(b) He buys them a house in the country.
(c) He has electronically-controlled gates installed.
(d) He adds padlocks to their doors.

10. What does the narrator realize is the reason for the creaking sound in her house?
(a) Her cat.
(b) Her child.
(c) An intruder.
(d) Her housing shifting.

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

12. What instrument does the narrator cite when describing how "the misbeats of [her] heart tailed off" (24)?
(a) Xylophone.
(b) Saxophone.
(c) Flute.
(d) Trumpet.

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

14. According to the narrator's tale, who were being shot by the police in the city?
(a) Schoolchildren.
(b) Other police officers.
(c) Burglars.
(d) Rioters.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did the man and woman get the plaque that said "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" (25) when they first began their life together?

2. According to the narrator's tale, under what conditions were people who lived in the city allowed in the suburbs?

3. What did thieves do to "somebody's trusted housemaid" (26) after the city riots were suppressed?

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

5. Where does the story the narrator tells herself take place?

(see the answer keys)

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