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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. To what does Bradbury compare folding tables?
(a) Books.
(b) Butterflies.
(c) Oysters,
(d) Folded hands.

3. What does the garage do when no one drives the car away?
(a) Waits and then closes again.
(b) Uses the car horn to alert the family.
(c) Starts the car remotely.
(d) Announces again that it is time to go to work and to school.

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

5. At one point, Bradbury says that the house has a "preoccupation" with self-protection. What must be true about the house?
(a) It does not see a reason to try to protect itself.
(b) It is constantly trying to protect itself.
(c) It is bored by the idea of protecting itself.
(d) It is willing to do terrible things to protect itself.

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

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

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

9. What is the image of the west wall meant to allude to?
(a) The Biblical flood.
(b) A recent riot in Los Angeles.
(c) An asteroid strike.
(d) Similar silhouettes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

10. During the fire, what does Bradbury compare the house's dialogue to?
(a) A nursery rhyme.
(b) The poem "There Will Come Soft Rains."
(c) A person's last words.
(d) The epilogue of a play.

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

12. To what does the phrase "the children's hour" allude?
(a) A nursery rhyme.
(b) A poem by Longfellow.
(c) A poem by Teasdale.
(d) A fairy tale.

13. When the windows break and the wind makes the fire grow and spread, which thematic motif is reinforced?
(a) The house is evil.
(b) The house is a part of nature.
(c) Technology can be dangerous.
(d) Nature and the house are in opposition.

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

15. What happens to the dog when it cannot get into the kitchen?
(a) It scratches through the door.
(b) It leaves the house.
(c) It runs through the house breaking things.
(d) It dies.

Short Answer Questions

1. When the story ends, what is left standing?

2. 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?

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

4. What happens at ten o'clock?

5. What is the name of the poem that the house reads after dinner?

(see the answer keys)

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