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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. At what point in the story does the protagonist reach his major epiphany?
(a) When he closes his eyes
(b) When he turns on the TV
(c) When his wife arrives home
(d) After dinner

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

3. What does the blind man remark about the narrator’s television set, saying, “Don’t ask me how, but I can tell”?
(a) That the sound seems rough
(b) That it is an old television set
(c) That it is a color television set
(d) That it is a small television set

4. How does the narrator describe the blind man’s facial hair?
(a) He has a full beard
(b) He has a goatee
(c) He has a handlebar mustache
(d) He has muttonchops

5. For how many years were the blind man and his wife married before her health went rapidly in decline?
(a) 13
(b) 3
(c) 8
(d) 5

6. The narrator feels pity for the blind man when he considers that he lived with and loved his wife without ever having what?
(a) Listened to her
(b) Touched her
(c) Seen her
(d) Understood her

7. What does the narrator say his wife writes one or two of every year?
(a) Essays
(b) Novels
(c) Poems
(d) Short stories

8. When the television show about the Church pans across the countryside, the narrator describes men walking behind what?
(a) Pigs
(b) Chickens
(c) Oxen
(d) Sheep

9. The narrator surmises of the blind man’s wife that she could wear what color eye-shadow around one eye and it wouldn’t make a difference?
(a) White
(b) Black
(c) Silver
(d) Green

10. What does the narrator give as a response to the narrator’s question of whether he was going to stay with his work?
(a) I haven’t had any other offers
(b) What were the options?
(c) It would be hard to take a pay cut
(d) It pays the bills

11. Where does the narrator tell the blind man the show about cathedrals has traveled to, where there are “paintings on the walls of this one church”?
(a) Denmark
(b) Italy
(c) Romania
(d) Finland

12. The blind man discusses his ham radio operator friends in “Guam, in the Philippines, in Alaska, and even” where?
(a) Poland
(b) Bolivia
(c) Australia
(d) Tahiti

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

14. What does the blind man say “never ends” in the story?
(a) Sorrow
(b) Pride
(c) Learning
(d) Fantasy

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

Short Answer Questions

1. The narrator finds a pen for the blind man where in his house?

2. What drink does the blind man ask for when the narrator offers him one after his arrival?

3. From what narrative perspective is the story of “Cathedral” relayed?

4. What vegetable does the narrator’s wife throw when she has an argument with the narrator in the beginning of the story?

5. What is the blind man’s name in the story?

(see the answer keys)

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