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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does the narrator stare at in her bed as she listens to the sounds in her house?
(a) Her reflection in the mirror.
(b) The floor.
(c) The door.
(d) Her gun.

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

4. What does someone tell the narrator she should write for an upcoming anthology?
(a) A children's story.
(b) A thriller.
(c) A poem.
(d) A screenplay.

5. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13. What is it said the house and swimming pool and car could not be insured against?
(a) Theft.
(b) Fire.
(c) Flooding.
(d) Riot damage.

14. What are the man and woman warned against doing as they start their lives together?
(a) Getting a pool.
(b) Living in the suburbs.
(c) Taken anyone in off the street.
(d) Having a child.

15. Where did the man and woman get the plaque that said "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED" (25) when they first began their life together?
(a) A local gift-shop.
(b) The Neighborhood Watch.
(c) The woman's father.
(d) The man's mother.

Short Answer Questions

1. What instrument does the narrator cite when describing how "the misbeats of [her] heart tailed off" (24)?

2. What reason does the narrator give for the casual laborer murdering an old widower?

3. What does the wife worry the people from the city might come to their home and do some day?

4. What woke the narrator in the night at the start of the story?

5. What adjective is used to describe the housemaid in the narrator's tale?

(see the answer keys)

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