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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 movement of feathers in the sunshine.
(c) The movement of flames destroying the earth.
(d) The color of a male robin's breast.

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

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

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

5. Who does the story imply is still alive in the city?
(a) The wealthy.
(b) No one.
(c) A few scientists.
(d) Some animals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What does Bradbury compare the chemical fire-fighting foam to?

4. Who is the author of the poem that the house reads after dinner?

5. What does Bradbury say is like "an altar with ten-thousand attendants"?

(see the answer keys)

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