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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does the house do with the uneaten breakfast?
(a) Puts it in the refrigerator.
(b) Throws it away.
(c) Leaves it sitting on the table with the rest of the uneaten meals.
(d) Scrapes it into the dog's dish.

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

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

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

6. What is the house compared to as it burns to the ground?
(a) A skeleton.
(b) A cigar.
(c) A bomb.
(d) A bonfire.

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

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

9. What does Bradbury metaphorically compare the house to?
(a) A bomb shelter.
(b) A closed umbrella.
(c) An elderly unmarried woman.
(d) A zoo.

10. "Seven-nine, breakfast time" is an example of which rhyming technique?
(a) Eye rhyme.
(b) Slant rhyme.
(c) Identical rhyme.
(d) End rhyme.

11. The robot mice are said to live in "warrens." This means that they live in what?
(a) Small boxes.
(b) Racks.
(c) Networks of tunnels.
(d) Plastic sleeves.

12. What "delicacies" does the fire consume upstairs?
(a) Paintings by well-known artists.
(b) The children's toys.
(c) The clothing of every member of the family.
(d) Vinyl record albums by famous singers.

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

14. 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) Haunting and ironic.
(b) Amusing and nostalgic.
(c) Tragic and melodramatic.
(d) Frantic and chaotic.

15. 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?
(a) It reinforces how helpless and pointless the technology is in the face of nature's power.
(b) It reminds the reader that the house is a living thing.
(c) It reminds the reader of the death of the family.
(d) It clarifies the order in which the house is burning, because the house can still "speak."

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens at ten o'clock?

2. Who is Baal?

3. What does "feathery fire" describe in the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

4. What does the house provide after dinner?

5. In the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains," the plum trees are in "tremulous" white. Readers can infer that this refers to what?

(see the answer keys)

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