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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. The line "And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn," contains an example of which technique?
(a) Oxymoron.
(b) Paradox.
(c) Metaphor.
(d) Personification.

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

5. What does Bradbury compare the chemical fire-fighting foam to?
(a) Snakes.
(b) Clouds.
(c) Seafoam.
(d) Elephants.

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

7. 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 nursery is the only room that does not turn on its sprinklers.
(d) The animal images seem to be aware of the fire.

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

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

10. Which room recreates the sights, sounds, and smells of the African savanna?
(a) The living room.
(b) The nursery.
(c) The kitchen.
(d) The bathroom.

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

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

13. What historical event is alluded to with the date given in the beginning of the story?
(a) The first testing of a nuclear bomb.
(b) The beginning of the Cold War.
(c) The beginning of World War II.
(d) The bombing of Hiroshima.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What is the reaction of nature to the end of human existence in the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

3. The robot mice are said to live in "warrens." This means that they live in what?

4. What does the house provide after dinner?

5. Bradbury mentions that martinis "manifested" on tables. What did the martinis do?

(see the answer keys)

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