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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Just before the house collapses, what does it do?
(a) It announces the wrong date and time.
(b) It begins performing multiple functions over and over.
(c) It shuts down entirely except for its "voice" function.
(d) It dumps out all of the liquor, coffee, and milk in one last attempt to fight the fire.

2. What does Bradbury compare the chemical fire-fighting foam to?
(a) Elephants.
(b) Clouds.
(c) Seafoam.
(d) Snakes.

3. What happens at ten-fifteen?
(a) A window breaks.
(b) The nursery walls come to life.
(c) The house shuts itself down.
(d) The sprinklers begin watering the lawn.

4. In the image of animals, the panther is said to be "cavorting." What is this panther doing?
(a) Sleeping.
(b) Eating.
(c) Hunting.
(d) Playing.

5. What has happened to the city around the house?
(a) It has been leveled by a bomb.
(b) It has been flooded by a burst dam.
(c) It has been flooded by massive rains.
(d) It has been leveled by an earthquake.

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

7. Why do the robot mice come out when they do?
(a) They are programmed to come out at nine-fifteen.
(b) They are looking for the family.
(c) They mistake the noise of the rain for an intruder.
(d) There is food spilled near the table.

8. Who is the author of the poem that the house reads after dinner?
(a) Bradbury.
(b) Teasdale.
(c) Longfellow.
(d) Thomas.

9. What does "feathery fire" describe in the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains"?
(a) The color of a male robin's breast.
(b) The movement of feathers in the sunshine.
(c) The color of the rays of the sun coming over the horizon.
(d) The movement of flames destroying the earth.

10. In which city does the story take place?
(a) Petaluma.
(b) Allendale.
(c) Sacramento.
(d) San Francisco.

11. On what date does the story begin?
(a) August 6.
(b) April 6.
(c) April 4.
(d) August 4.

12. What allusion is present in the weather box's announcement of the rain?
(a) There is a reference to a very old folk tune, often sung by children.
(b) There is a reference to a Greek myth about rain and death.
(c) There is a reference to a famous Dutch painting.
(d) There is a reference to a popular book of Bradbury's time.

13. What effect is the constant repetition and rhyming of the voice-clock probably meant to have?
(a) It echos the language of fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
(b) It stresses the forgetfulness of the family.
(c) It reinforces the similarity of everything that the voice clock says.
(d) It demonstrates a positive attitude toward technology.

14. "Mr. Featherstone" is an example of what literary technique?
(a) Paradox.
(b) Kenning.
(c) Epithet.
(d) Oxymoron.

15. 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) Metaphor.
(b) Foreshadowing.
(c) Imagery.
(d) Flashback.

Short Answer Questions

1. "The house tried to save itself" is an example of which technique?

2. What happens at ten o'clock?

3. Who is Baal?

4. What "delicacies" does the fire consume upstairs?

5. From two thirty-five to four o'clock, what can readers infer that the family would ordinarily be doing?

(see the answer keys)

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