View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When the story ends, what is left standing?
(a) One wall of the house.
(b) A tree.
(c) Nothing.
(d) A distant building.

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

3. What does the dog do once it gets inside the house?
(a) It begins eating the spoiled food.
(b) It barks at every door.
(c) It looks through the house for the family's other dog.
(d) It falls asleep in the nursery.

4. 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 demonstrates a positive attitude toward technology.
(c) It reinforces the similarity of everything that the voice clock says.
(d) It stresses the forgetfulness of the family.

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

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

7. Bradbury mentions that martinis "manifested" on tables. What did the martinis do?
(a) Spilled.
(b) Evaporated.
(c) Appeared.
(d) Sparkled.

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

9. To what famous dog is this dog an allusion?
(a) Cerberus.
(b) Buck, from Call of the Wild.
(c) President Lincoln's dog.
(d) Odysseus's dog.

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

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

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 famous Dutch painting.
(c) There is a reference to a popular book of Bradbury's time.
(d) There is a reference to a Greek myth about rain and death.

13. Who is Baal?
(a) A Mesopotamian warrior.
(b) A pre-Christian god.
(c) The dog that guards hell in Greek mythology.
(d) An Egyptian pharaoh.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What has happened to the city around the house?

2. Where are the "aluminium roaches and iron crickets"?

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

4. When the fire travels outside and up the sides of the house, it is described as what?

5. What is unusual about the images of the African animals?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 571 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample