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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains," the plum trees are in "tremulous" white. Readers can infer that this refers to what?
(a) Blossoms.
(b) Snow.
(c) Ash.
(d) Butterflies.

2. What is the name of the poem that the house reads after dinner?
(a) "There Will Come Soft Rains."
(b) "Fire and Ice."
(c) "August 6."
(d) "The Children's Hour."

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

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

5. 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.

6. Why does the house let the dog in?
(a) It recognizes the dog.
(b) It is programmed to let in any dog or cat.
(c) It is an accident.
(d) It wants the dog to find the family.

7. What does Bradbury say that the house is angry about when the dog shows up?
(a) The disturbance to its routine.
(b) Needing to clean up the mud from its feet.
(c) That the dog is probably contagious.
(d) That the family is not with it.

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

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

10. What is the job of the robot mice?
(a) Alerting the house to intruders.
(b) Entertaining the children.
(c) Entertaining the dog.
(d) Cleaning.

11. What does the breakfast stove make for breakfast?
(a) Eggs, toast, and bacon.
(b) Pancakes and bacon.
(c) Pancakes.
(d) Eggs and hash browns.

12. What does the house provide after dinner?
(a) Games and snacks.
(b) A warm bath.
(c) Music and hot chocolate.
(d) A fire and a cigar.

13. The use of sentence fragments in the description of the spreading fire is probably intended to create what effect?
(a) Confusion and doubt.
(b) Apathy and resignation.
(c) Chaos and speed.
(d) Distance and irony.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Just before the house collapses, what does it do?

2. What is thematically important about the cause of the fire in the kitchen?

3. What causes the house to temporarily "give up" as the fire spreads?

4. To what does Bradbury compare folding tables?

5. What does Bradbury metaphorically compare the house to?

(see the answer keys)

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