View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the likely purpose of inserting the house's "dialogue" ("Help, help! Fire! Run, run!") into the scene that describes the fire consuming the house?
(a) It reminds the reader that the house is a living thing.
(b) It clarifies the order in which the house is burning, because the house can still "speak."
(c) It reinforces how helpless and pointless the technology is in the face of nature's power.
(d) It reminds the reader of the death of the family.

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

3. What does Bradbury compare to Baal?
(a) The stove.
(b) The incinerator.
(c) The house.
(d) The dog.

4. When the windows break and the wind makes the fire grow and spread, which thematic motif is reinforced?
(a) Nature and the house are in opposition.
(b) Technology can be dangerous.
(c) The house is a part of nature.
(d) The house is evil.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does the dog want to get into the kitchen so badly?

2. What does Bradbury say that the house is angry about when the dog shows up?

3. What is the job of the robot mice?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,136 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample