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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: "There Will Come Soft Rains".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does the dog want to get into the kitchen so badly?
(a) Its food dish is in the kitchen.
(b) It thinks the family is in the kitchen.
(c) The rest of the house is filling with smoke.
(d) The house has begun making pancakes.

2. The line "And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn," contains an example of which technique?
(a) Paradox.
(b) Oxymoron.
(c) Metaphor.
(d) Personification.

3. What causes the house to temporarily "give up" as the fire spreads?
(a) The house is ready to "die."
(b) There is no more water.
(c) The house is waiting for the flames to reach the attic.
(d) It has begun to rain outside.

4. Which is the best descriptor of the mood of the scene in the study, where the poem is read and music plays as a cigar slowly burns down to ash?
(a) Amusing and nostalgic.
(b) Frantic and chaotic.
(c) Tragic and melodramatic.
(d) Haunting and ironic.

5. Which is the best summary of how the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" compares to the short story of the same name?
(a) The poem focuses more on the survival of a world without humans.
(b) The poem is a darker version of the same ideas contained in the short story.
(c) The poem is more hopeful about humankind's future.
(d) The poem focuses more on the role of technology in humankind's demise.

Short Answer Questions

1. What allusion is present in the weather box's announcement of the rain?

2. The robot mice are said to live in "warrens." This means that they live in what?

3. "Mr. Featherstone" is an example of what literary technique?

4. What is the house compared to as it burns to the ground?

5. What is thematically important about the cause of the fire in the kitchen?

(see the answer key)

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