View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where did Raymond Carver earn his Bachelor of Arts degree?
(a) University of Nevada, Reno
(b) Oregon State University
(c) Evergreen State University
(d) Humboldt State College

2. What does the narrator see his wife doing as she parks the car when she returns with the blind man?
(a) Holding his hand
(b) Crying
(c) Screaming
(d) Laughing

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

4. Of the blind man’s eyes, the narrator says there’s too much white where?
(a) In the cornea
(b) In the retina
(c) In the iris
(d) In the pupil

5. The narrator describes the man narrating the television show about the Church as being from where?
(a) Guam
(b) England
(c) Portugal
(d) Canada

6. How does the narrator feel about the blind man’s visit in the beginning of the story?
(a) Unenthusiastic
(b) Angry
(c) Apprehensive
(d) Excited

7. The narrator says in the beginning of the story, “My idea of blindness came from” what?
(a) Magazines
(b) Church sermons
(c) Word of mouth
(d) The movies

8. The blind man tells the narrator when he arrives that he hadn’t been on a train in almost how long?
(a) 30 years
(b) 40 years
(c) 10 years
(d) 20 years

9. What is the name of Raymond Carver’s first published book of poems?
(a) Surrounding Mountains
(b) Near Klamath
(c) Among the Redwoods
(d) Along the beach

10. What was the last part of the blind man’s tape that the narrator heard when his wife played it for him?
(a) You can certainly do better
(b) I can picture the type
(c) He sounds like a great man
(d) From all you’ve said about him, I can only conclude—

11. What does the protagonist in “Cathedral” gain by the end of the story?
(a) Political favor
(b) Empathy and understanding
(c) Money and security
(d) Anger and resentment

12. Of his knowledge of cathedrals, the blind man says that he knows from the television show that they took about how many years to build?
(a) 40-60
(b) 20-30
(c) 150-200
(d) 50-100

13. What color are the narrator’s wife’s robe and slippers?
(a) Pink
(b) Green
(c) Yellow
(d) Blue

14. The narrator says that his wife first contacted the blind man after how much time had passed since she’d worked for him?
(a) 8 months
(b) 5 years
(c) 3 years
(d) 1 year

15. Where does the narrator spread out the pen and paper when he returns with it in the story?
(a) On the kitchen counter
(b) On the sofa
(c) On the floor
(d) On the coffee table

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the narrator sit when he returns to the living room with a pen and paper?

2. What word from the story refers to a bridge for carrying a road or railway across a valley, consisting of a set of arches supported by a row of piers or towers?

3. The narrator says of the blind man that he’d done “a little bit of everything, it seemed, a regular” what?

4. The narrator tells the blind man that sometimes cathedrals have “devils and such carved into the front. Sometimes” what?

5. When the blind man appears to snooze during his conversation with the narrator, the narrator assumes that perhaps he’s imagining himself where?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 533 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample