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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 is the image of the west wall meant to allude to?
(a) Similar silhouettes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(b) The Biblical flood.
(c) A recent riot in Los Angeles.
(d) An asteroid strike.

2. "The house tried to save itself" is an example of which technique?
(a) Onomatopoeia.
(b) Alliteration.
(c) Paradox.
(d) Personification.

3. Which is the best summary of how the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" compares to the short story of the same name?
(a) The poem focuses more on the role of technology in humankind's demise.
(b) The poem is more hopeful about humankind's future.
(c) The poem is a darker version of the same ideas contained in the short story.
(d) The poem focuses more on the survival of a world without humans.

4. 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.

5. What is unusual about the images of the African animals?
(a) Their shapes.
(b) Their faces.
(c) Their sizes.
(d) Their colors.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does the breakfast stove make for breakfast?

3. Who does the story imply is still alive in the city?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Describe the image that ends the story and explain its significance.

9. 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.

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

(see the answer keys)

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