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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 is the problem that Lydia is beginning to feel with the house?

2. Who says the following: “But nothing’s too good for our children”?

3. How far away are they when the nursery lights come on?

4. Who initially suggests that the family take a vacation and “shut the house off”?

5. What is supposed to help the children “work off their neuroses in a healthful way”?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Wendy and Peter react when George asks them about Africa?

2. Explain how the nursery conjures the African veldt.

3. George says that his children treat him as if he were the offspring. Provide examples of this sentiment from the text.

4. Explain how the nursery reflects the children’s psyches.

5. Describe the sensory experience of the nursery. What senses does the nursery appeal to? Use a description from the text as an example.

6. Why aren’t Wendy and Peter at dinner?

7. What does Lydia hear that George does not – at least at first?

8. What does Lydia think is wrong with her life?

9. How do the children react when George and David McClean shut the nursery off?

10. Explain Dr.McClean’s comment that children prefer santas over scrooges.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Bradbury’s work often makes a political statement about the future of our society.

Research and give a brief biographical sketch of Ray Bradbury. Do you think there is always some of the author's own life in his/her novels? Why or why not? Give examples. Name one idea/concept you think may have been a part of the Bradbury's agenda. Analyze that idea throughout the book and discuss Bradbury's probable agenda concerning that idea.

Essay Topic 2

Stories can be plot or character driven, or even both with a balance of the two.

What do you think it means to say that a plot is character driven or action driven? Which type of plot do you find more interesting? Why? Do you think it is possible to have a plot where action and character are developed to the same degree? Why or why not? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 3

Foreshadowing is used in almost all works of fiction.

What is foreshadowing? Identify three instances of foreshadowing in The Veldt and what they foreshadow? How does foreshadowing contribute to a story's suspense? Are there any incidences that you thought foreshadows a future event, but it does not do so?

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