View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) Tragic and melodramatic.
(c) Frantic and chaotic.
(d) Amusing and nostalgic.

2. To what does the phrase "the children's hour" allude?
(a) A nursery rhyme.
(b) A fairy tale.
(c) A poem by Longfellow.
(d) A poem by Teasdale.

3. 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.

4. When the fire travels outside and up the sides of the house, it is described as what?
(a) Overwhelming.
(b) Clever.
(c) Treacherous.
(d) Mischievous.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Why do the robot mice come out when they do?

2. 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?

3. What does Bradbury metaphorically compare the house to?

4. The line "And swallows circling with their shimmering sound" is an example of which technique?

5. What is strange about how the nursery reacts to the fire?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the purpose of ending the story with the house fire? Why not just end it with the reading of the Teasdale poem?

2. What is the intended effect of juxtaposing the images of the silhouettes with the description of the house's continued paranoia about intruders?

3. How do the cleaning mice allude to Cinderella, and what is the purpose of this allusion?

4. Explain the allusion to Odysseus's dog and how it functions in the story.

5. Explain the inclusion of the Sara Teasdale poem in this story.

6. What is suggested by the fact that the house repeats the date "three times for memory's sake"?

7. How does Bradbury use the dates on which the story takes place as a form of foreshadowing?

8. What is the difference between the focus of Teasdale's poem and the focus of Bradbury's short story?

9. In what way is the house's "speech" like nursery rhymes, and what is the purpose of this choice?

10. What is the likely purpose of including mechanical creatures such as rats and roaches?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,210 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample