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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. When the narrator tells readers that it seems like the voice-clock is worried that no one will get up, this is an example of what technique?
(a) Foreshadowing.
(b) Metaphor.
(c) Imagery.
(d) Flashback.

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

3. What does Bradbury say is like "an altar with ten-thousand attendants"?
(a) The yard.
(b) The incinerator.
(c) The house.
(d) The city.

4. To what famous dog is this dog an allusion?
(a) Cerberus.
(b) President Lincoln's dog.
(c) Buck, from Call of the Wild.
(d) Odysseus's dog.

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 role of technology in humankind's demise.
(b) The poem is a darker version of the same ideas contained in the short story.
(c) The poem focuses more on the survival of a world without humans.
(d) The poem is more hopeful about humankind's future.

Short Answer Questions

1. On what date does the story begin?

2. Bradbury mentions that martinis "manifested" on tables. What did the martinis do?

3. What has happened to the city around the house?

4. To what does the phrase "the children's hour" allude?

5. At one point, Bradbury says that the house has a "preoccupation" with self-protection. What must be true about the house?

(see the answer key)

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