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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) A huge crater.
(b) Broken glass.
(c) The silhouettes of the family.
(d) Water beginning to seep in at the foundation.

2. 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 survival of a world without humans.
(b) The poem is a darker version of the same ideas contained in the short story.
(c) The poem is more hopeful about humankind's future.
(d) The poem focuses more on the role of technology in humankind's demise.

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

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

5. At one point, Bradbury says that the house has a "preoccupation" with self-protection. What must be true about the house?
(a) It is bored by the idea of protecting itself.
(b) It does not see a reason to try to protect 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 Bradbury say is like "an altar with ten-thousand attendants"?

2. What does Bradbury metaphorically compare the house to?

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

4. When the fire travels outside and up the sides of the house, it is described as what?

5. When the narrator tells readers that it seems like the voice-clock is worried that no one will get up, this is an example of what technique?

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

3. Explain the significance of the nursery decor.

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

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

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

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

8. 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.

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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