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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. After the incident with a neighbor's housemaid, what did the man and woman's housemaid beg them to do?

2. Who lives in the home the narrator describes at the start of her story?

3. What did "a certain novelist" say every writer "ought to write at least once" (23)?

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

5. Where does the story the narrator tells herself take place?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What were the man and woman unable to insure their house against, and why did the man tell his wife they need not worry about that?

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

4. Despite having the same fears of intruders as other people, what precautions does the narrator say she does not take in her home?

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

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

7. At the start of "Once Upon a Time," what does the narrator say someone wrote and asked her to do, and how does she feel about this request?

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

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

10. What does the narrator realize is the cause of the creaking she hears in her home at the start of the story?

(see the answer keys)

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