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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. Which is the best descriptor of the mood of the scene in the study, where the poem is read and music plays as a cigar slowly burns down to ash?

2. What is thematically important about the cause of the fire in the kitchen?

3. To what does the phrase "the children's hour" allude?

4. What is unusual about the images of the African animals?

5. What effect is the constant repetition and rhyming of the voice-clock probably meant to have?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Explain the significance of the nursery decor.

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Bradbury's time, nuclear war seemed like the most serious threat to humanity's future. What seems like the most serious threat today? Choose a threat to defend as the most serious, and defend your choice with researched evidence.

Essay Topic 2

Imagine that you have been asked to write an updated version of Bradbury's story. Explain what details you would change in order to make the story more relevant to today's audiences, and tell why you would make these choices.

Essay Topic 3

The setting of the short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" is meant to be a middle-class home in a city near San Francisco, California. Most critics agree that Bradbury intended this to appeal to his audience as a sort of "universal" setting that would bring home to his audience that the devastating effects of nuclear war can happen very suddenly to anyone--not just soldiers, not just people in "other" countries. What is your opinion of this choice? Do you think that it accomplishes its intended purpose? Do you think that this purpose is worthwhile? Be sure to explain your reasoning.

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