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

2. What is the house compared to as it burns to the ground?
(a) A bonfire.
(b) A bomb.
(c) A cigar.
(d) A skeleton.

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

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

5. Just before the house collapses, what does it do?
(a) It shuts down entirely except for its "voice" function.
(b) It announces the wrong date and time.
(c) It dumps out all of the liquor, coffee, and milk in one last attempt to fight the fire.
(d) It begins performing multiple functions over and over.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. To what does Bradbury compare folding tables?

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

4. Which is the best summary of how the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" compares to the short story of the same name?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. The garbage disposal in the kitchen is referred to as a "metal throat." What techniques are at use here, and what is their purpose?

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

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

4. Explain what is ironic about the rain in the nursery scenery.

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. Explain the purpose of the story's allusion to Longfellow's poem "The Children's Hour."

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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