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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. 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.

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

5. At one point, Bradbury says that the house has a "preoccupation" with self-protection. What must be true about the house?
(a) It does not see a reason to try to protect itself.
(b) It is bored by the idea of protecting itself.
(c) It is willing to do terrible things to protect itself.
(d) It is constantly trying to protect itself.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the dog do once it gets inside the house?

2. When the windows break and the wind makes the fire grow and spread, which thematic motif is reinforced?

3. "The house tried to save itself" is an example of which technique?

4. Why does the house let the dog in?

5. Which room recreates the sights, sounds, and smells of the African savanna?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain what evidence there is that the house deliberately causes the dog's death.

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

3. Explain how the pun in the line "The morning house lay empty" explains why the house is empty and foreshadows the story's later revelation of the family's fate.

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

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

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

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

8. What is the meaning of the silhouettes on the side of the house?

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

10. Explain the significance of the nursery decor.

(see the answer keys)

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