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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 guard dogs or security alarms.
(c) She has no burglar bars or gun under her pillow.
(d) She does not have a phone nearby or a bat under her bed.

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

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

4. 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) Musicians.
(c) Migrant miners.
(d) Burglars.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12. Who had recommended the gardener to the man and his wife?
(a) The man's mother.
(b) The child's teacher.
(c) Neighbors.
(d) The woman's sister.

13. What woke the narrator in the night at the start of the story?
(a) A rainstorm.
(b) The phone ringing.
(c) Her husband.
(d) A creaking sound in her house.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

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

4. What does the man tell his wife to ease her fears the people from the city will come to their house in the suburbs?

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

(see the answer keys)

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