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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

4. 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 them a house in the country.
(b) He adds padlocks to their doors.
(c) He has electronically-controlled gates installed.
(d) He buys her a gun.

5. Where were the riots said to be in the tale the narrator tells herself?
(a) In a far away land.
(b) In another country.
(c) In the city.
(d) In her mind.

Short Answer Questions

1. What precautions does the narrator say she does not take in her home, despite having the same fears of those that do?

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

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

4. What game did the little boy like to play after they installed a speaker at the gates of their home?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the sign the man and woman received from the Neighborhood watch. How was it supposed to "prove the property owner was no racist" (25)?

2. After the riots outside the city subsided, what crimes took place in the suburbs?

3. What recent crimes does the narrator describe at the start of the story?

4. How does the husband try to assuage his wife's fears when she worries people from the cities will tear off their warning sign and "open the gates and stream in" (26).

5. Why is the narrator unable to sleep at the start of the story?

6. What precautions do the man and woman take against theft or natural disasters when they first move in to their home together?

7. How is the man's mother described and what warning did she give her son and his wife as they start their life together?

8. Where does the story the narrator tells herself take palce and who is in the story?

9. What fears did the man and woman's trusted housemaid begin to have, and what did they do in response to her fears?

10. What does the man have installed in their house to ease his wife's fears and what does the boy do with them?

(see the answer keys)

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