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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. How many nights in a row are the gas jets spotted before they stop?
(a) Four.
(b) Twenty.
(c) Ten.
(d) Six.

2. How far is Mars from Earth?
(a) 20 million miles.
(b) 45 million miles.
(c) 15 million miles.
(d) 35 million miles.

3. What happens to a few people when the crowd is escaping from the heat ray?
(a) They are arrested.
(b) They are crushed.
(c) They are shot.
(d) They are captured by Martians.

4. How does the narrator paddle across the river when he finds a small boat?
(a) He uses sticks.
(b) He uses his hands.
(c) He has paddles.
(d) He uses tools that he found.

5. Who owns the property on which the first cylinder crashes?
(a) Lord Harrington.
(b) Lord William.
(c) Lord Hilton.
(d) Lord Vasser.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why do the narrator and the curate decide to leave the riverbank?

2. Henderson sends news of the cylinder to his colleagues in what city?

3. Where does the Lieutenant tell the narrator and the soldier to go?

4. What must first be present in order for life to begin according to the narrator?

5. How does the narrator react when he reads an article about the cylinder at the end of Chapter 2?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is different about the flaming gas jets from usual shooting stars, and what do people think they are at first?

2. What does the narrator say is the lesson of his story in the Epilogue?

3. What does a group of people attempt to do just before the Heat-Ray? Why doesn't this work?

4. What is the state of the narrator's relationship with the curate when they stay in Halliford, and why?

5. As the curate and narrator fight for position at the opening in the ruined house, what do they see, and how does the narrator react?

6. What happens to the man who rents out the horse and cart to the narrator? What message is this event supposed to send to the reader?

7. What happens in the ruined house that makes the narrator hide in the basement?

8. Why might the narrator have included the story about his brother?

9. What does the narrator's brother do for the women in the carriage? What does this reveal about his character?

10. Why do scientists think that Mars cannot support life?

(see the answer keys)

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