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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In his attempt to describe cathedrals, the narrator tells the blind man that they are built out of stone and sometimes out of what?
(a) Marble
(b) Granite
(c) Slate
(d) Sandstone

2. The narrator says, “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke because, as speculation had it, they couldn’t” what?
(a) Tell how other people did it
(b) Fully share the pleasure of it
(c) Avoid burning their faces
(d) See the smoke they exhaled

3. “Cathedral” is a short story that is driven by what literary element?
(a) Irony
(b) Setting
(c) Character
(d) Plot

4. How many short stories are included in the anthology Cathedral?
(a) 12
(b) 5
(c) 7
(d) 4

5. How many joints does the narrator roll for him and the blind man while his wife is upstairs?
(a) 6
(b) 2
(c) 1
(d) 4

6. Where is Travis A.F.B. located?
(a) New Jersey
(b) Georgia
(c) California
(d) Kansas

7. The narrator says of the “officer-to-be” that he’d been his wife’s what?
(a) Cousin
(b) Familial enemy
(c) Childhood sweetheart
(d) School rival

8. How does the narrator instruct the blind man to smoke the marijuana in the story?
(a) Inhale slowly
(b) Don’t punish yourself
(c) Don’t take too much
(d) Hold it as long as you can

9. Where does the narrator sit when he returns to the living room with a pen and paper?
(a) In a chair
(b) On the table
(c) On the sofa
(d) On the floor

10. The narrator tells the blind man that sometimes cathedrals have “devils and such carved into the front. Sometimes” what?
(a) Peasants and thieves
(b) Lords and ladies
(c) Kings and bishops
(d) Plants and animals

11. Where does the blind man put his hand as the narrator begins to draw in the story?
(a) Over the narrator’s hand
(b) On the paper
(c) At the edge of the table
(d) On the narrator’s face

12. What did the narrator’s wife’s first husband do when he found her after her overdose?
(a) He kicked the door
(b) He said a prayer
(c) He called an ambulance
(d) He started to cry

13. What slang term does the blind man use at the end of the story to mean “to lie”?
(a) Evasion
(b) Fib
(c) Slander
(d) Fudge

14. How old does the narrator describe the blind man as being?
(a) In his early fifties
(b) In his early twenties
(c) In his late forties
(d) In his late thirties

15. Where is the blind man going to visit his dead wife’s relatives in the beginning of the story?
(a) Connecticut
(b) Alaska
(c) Alabama
(d) Oregon

Short Answer Questions

1. When the blind man asks the narrator to describe a cathedral to him, what is the first thing the narrator says?

2. What kind of paper does the blind man ask the narrator to go get when they are talking late at night?

3. The narrator’s wife tells him early in the story, “if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d” what?

4. The narrator says in the beginning of the story that the last time his wife saw the blind man was how many years ago?

5. What happens to the television show as the narrator works on his drawing of a cathedral in the story?

(see the answer keys)

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