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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is said to have offered a warning to the man and woman when they started their life together?

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

3. What is the man's mother called in the narrator's tale?

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

5. How was the plaque meant to indicate that the property owner was not racist?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator do when she is an able to fall back to sleep at the start of the story?

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

3. 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?

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

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

6. 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?

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

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

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

10. 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)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Genre is a category assigned to a literary work. What are some genres that could be used to classify "Once Upon a Time"? What is the main genre of the story? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay describing the imagery used in “Once Upon a Time.” Indicate examples of imagery in the text and identify possible meanings.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay analyzing Gordimer's commentary on race and class in “Once Upon a Time.” How is race and class important to the story? How does it affect the narrative? Use textual evidence to explain your analysis.

(see the answer keys)

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