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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 story do the robot mice allude?

2. Why do the robot mice come out when they do?

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

4. What happens at ten o'clock?

5. To what does Bradbury compare folding tables?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the meaning of the silhouettes on the side of the house?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Read and then write an analysis of "What the Dead Man Said" by Chinelo Onwualu (available online). Your thesis should make a claim about the story's theme, and the rest of your essay should defend that claim.

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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