View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What can be seen on the house's west wall?
(a) The silhouettes of the family.
(b) Broken glass.
(c) A huge crater.
(d) Water beginning to seep in at the foundation.

2. In the sentence "The morning house lay empty," there is an example of which technique?
(a) Parallelism.
(b) Passive voice.
(c) Punning.
(d) Metaphor.

3. What is unusual about the images of the African animals?
(a) Their sizes.
(b) Their faces.
(c) Their colors.
(d) Their shapes.

4. What happens at ten o'clock?
(a) The kitchen begins to make a second breakfast.
(b) The robot mice go back to their burrows.
(c) The sun comes out.
(d) A stray animal wanders through the kitchen.

5. What is strange about how the nursery reacts to the fire?
(a) The voice in the nursery walls begins singing an old children's song.
(b) The nursery is the only room that does not turn on its sprinklers.
(c) The animal images seem to be aware of the fire.
(d) The nursery deliberately opens its windows during the fire.

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

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

8. What is thematically important about the cause of the fire in the kitchen?
(a) The fire is started when one of the cleaning mice knocks over a cleaning product.
(b) The fire is started when the house's elaborate machinery begins to break down.
(c) The fire is started by the family dog.
(d) The fire is started when the natural world intrudes into the house.

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

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

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

12. To what story do the robot mice allude?
(a) Beauty and the Beast.
(b) Cinderella.
(c) Snow White.
(d) Little Red Riding Hood.

13. "The house tried to save itself" is an example of which technique?
(a) Alliteration.
(b) Onomatopoeia.
(c) Paradox.
(d) Personification.

14. What causes the fire to eventually win the battle with the house?
(a) The rain stops.
(b) The fire reaches the house's "brain" in the attic.
(c) The wind creates flames so intense the house cannot fight them.
(d) The house stops defending itself.

15. The line "And swallows circling with their shimmering sound" is an example of which technique?
(a) Parallelism.
(b) Metaphor.
(c) Alliteration.
(d) Personification.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the likely purpose of inserting the house's "dialogue" ("Help, help! Fire! Run, run!") into the scene that describes the fire consuming the house?

2. What does Bradbury say that the house is angry about when the dog shows up?

3. What is the first thing that the voice-clock announces?

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

5. What is the name of the family that owned the house?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 677 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample