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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what famous dog is this dog an allusion?

2. In which city does the story take place?

3. What happens at ten-fifteen?

4. On what date does the story begin?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. 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.

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

8. What is ironic about Bradbury's use of rain in this story?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose a piece of science fiction--a short story, novel, comic book, video game (that has a developed plot and characters), television show, etc. Think carefully about what messages this work is trying to send--not only about the future, but about the present. In two paragraphs, explain one message about the future and one message about the past, supporting your claims with textual details.

Essay Topic 2

Go online and find the background story and text of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's "Two-Minute Apocalypse." Write an essay that explains the message about life contained in this piece of flash fiction and then compare or contrast this message to the theme of "There Will Come Soft Rains."

Essay Topic 3

Bradbury chooses Picasso and Matisse paintings to stand in for the idea of human cultural achievement. In what way does this choice reveal something about Bradbury's background? Write a two-paragraph essay in which you explore both Bradbury's choice and how alternate choices might more fully speak of "human cultural achievement."

(see the answer keys)

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