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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

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

5. According to the narrator's tale, under what conditions were people who lived in the city allowed in the suburbs?
(a) As doctors and lawyers.
(b) As housemaids and gardeners.
(c) As nannies and drivers.
(d) As teachers and secretaries.

6. 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.

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

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

9. 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) Stabbed her.
(c) Made her tell them where all the family jewelry was.
(d) Kidnapped her.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the author of "Once Upon a Time"?

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

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?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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