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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. Where does the narrator’s wife fall asleep after they’ve smoked marijuana?
(a) In the chair
(b) In the bathtub
(c) On the floor
(d) On the couch

2. What does the blind man instruct the narrator to do after he’s almost completed the drawing of the cathedral?
(a) To open his mind
(b) To close his eyes
(c) To say a prayer
(d) To close his mouth

3. 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

4. The blind man asks the narrator’s wife if he looks what, when he meets her husband?
(a) Disinterested
(b) Disheveled
(c) Displaced
(d) Distinguished

5. 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?
(a) Viaduct
(b) Delta
(c) Well
(d) Tunnel

Short Answer Questions

1. How long ago does the narrator say his wife offered to let him listen to a tape from the blind man in the beginning of the story?

2. What tool does the narrator note the blind man does not use after his arrival?

3. What does the narrator say causes him problems sleeping?

4. The man that the narrator’s wife was going to marry when she worked for the blind man was in what kind of school?

5. Why does the narrator’s wife say she shouldn’t be smoking this when she is passed the joint in the story?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author describe his wife’s poetry in “Cathedral”?

2. What is signified by the narrator’s choice to keep his eyes closed at the end of the story?

3. What conversation does the narrator have with Robert regarding alcohol after Robert’s arrival?

4. What can the reader discern of the narrator’s jealousy through the exposition in the beginning of the story?

5. What is Robert’s response when the narrator offers him marijuana after dinner? What is his experience with the drug?

6. Why does the narrator say the blind man is coming to visit in the beginning of the story?

7. How does the narrator describe his experience in the final lines of the story?

8. What is the narrator’s prayer before dinner? How is the dinner described by the narrator?

9. What are the narrator’s first impressions of Robert after his arrival? How is Robert dressed?

10. How does the narrator’s wife suggest the narrator act toward Robert when he visits?

(see the answer keys)

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