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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 can be seen on the house's west wall?
(a) Broken glass.
(b) A huge crater.
(c) Water beginning to seep in at the foundation.
(d) The silhouettes of the family.

2. What does Bradbury compare the chemical fire-fighting foam to?
(a) Seafoam.
(b) Clouds.
(c) Snakes.
(d) Elephants.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does "feathery fire" describe in the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

2. What "delicacies" does the fire consume upstairs?

3. What is the image of the west wall meant to allude to?

4. What happens at ten o'clock?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the significance of the nursery decor.

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

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

4. What are the poses of the people in their silhouettes on the side of the house, and why are they important to notice?

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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.

(see the answer keys)

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