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

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

3. What woke the narrator in the night at the start of the story?

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

5. What does the narrator do when she is unable to go back to sleep?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

3. 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)?

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

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

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

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

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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing Gordimer's decision to utilize the frame story of the narrator's bedtime tale in "Once Upon a Time." How does this impact the reader's understanding of the story's events? Is this effective? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay discussing the setting and time period of “Once Upon a Time.” In what ways does the time period and setting impact your understanding of the story as well as the themes?

Essay Topic 3

Look at the structure of the story. How does the author use character and dialogue to drive the narrative?

(see the answer keys)

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