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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Where does the story the narrator tells herself take place?
(a) A house in the suburbs.
(b) A condo by the ocean.
(c) An apartment in the city.
(d) A house in the country.

3. How are the people in the narrator's story said to be living at the start of her tale?
(a) Happily ever after.
(b) Like peas in a pod.
(c) Carefree and fancy free.
(d) In eternal despair.

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

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

6. After the incident with a neighbor's housemaid, what did the man and woman's housemaid beg them to do?
(a) Get a gun.
(b) Install burglar bars and an alarm system.
(c) Move to the country.
(d) Give her a raise.

7. Who lives in the home the narrator describes at the start of her story?
(a) A man, and a woman and their son.
(b) An old woman and her adult son.
(c) A single mother and her child.
(d) A father and his son.

8. 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 people of the city have no interest in the suburbs.
(d) The buses will not take them to the city.

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

10. Why was the swimming pool in the tale fenced in?
(a) So the neighbors would not see it.
(b) So the cat and dog would not get in.
(c) So intruders would not swim in it.
(d) So the boy and is friends would not drown.

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

12. What did "a certain novelist" say every writer "ought to write at least once" (23)?
(a) A thriller.
(b) A haiku.
(c) A screenplay.
(d) A children's story.

13. What were the Chopi and Tsonga people the narrator says may have made the wooden instrument she describes when discussing her heart beating?
(a) Farmers.
(b) Migrant miners.
(c) Musicians.
(d) Burglars.

14. What precautions does the narrator say she does not take in her home, despite having the same fears of those that do?
(a) She does not have locks on her doors.
(b) She does not have a phone nearby or a bat under her bed.
(c) She does not have guard dogs or security alarms.
(d) She has no burglar bars or gun under her pillow.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator describe as "finely tuned" in the night?

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

3. What does someone tell the narrator she should write for an upcoming anthology?

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

5. What type of people are said to live in the city in the tale the narrator tells herself?

(see the answer keys)

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