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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. What does Mary attempt to do when Patrick tells her to “sit down” after he arrives home in “Lamb to the Slaughter”?
(a) Make him a second drink
(b) Go to the grocery store
(c) Call the police
(d) Call her mother

2. What is the first sound that Mary hears of her husband’s arrival in “Lamb to the Slaughter”?
(a) A creaking gate
(b) Coughing
(c) Singing
(d) Tires on the gravel

3. Who arrives after the police detectives to investigate Patrick’s death?
(a) A police photographer
(b) O'Malley
(c) A doctor
(d) Sergeant Noonan

4. As Patrick begins to talk to Mary, the lamplight leaves what aspects of his face in shadow?
(a) His chin and mouth
(b) His nose and hair
(c) His cheek and eyebrow
(d) His hair and ears

5. Mary is told by the policemen that the weapon used to kill her husband was “most certainly a large piece of” what?
(a) Rock
(b) Metal
(c) Plastic
(d) Wood

Short Answer Questions

1. What is described as being “twisted back underneath [Patrick’s] body” when Mary returns home from the store?

2. What reason does Mary give to the store clerk for her staying in tonight?

3. How does Mary greet her husband when he arrives in the beginning of “Lamb to the Slaughter”?

4. Where does Mary discover her dead husband lying after she returns from the store?

5. What refers to the defense by an accused person of having been elsewhere at the time an alleged offense was committed?

Short Essay Questions

1. What elements of the setting of “Lamb to the Slaughter” indicate the time period for the story?

2. In examining “Lamb to Slaughter” from an anthropological view of identity, what do you think Dahl’s statement is about mankind?

3. How is “climax” defined? Where in “Lamb to the Slaughter” does the climax occur?

4. At what point in the story is Mary’s sense of identity shattered? What does she do to regain her sense of identity?

5. How did “Lamb to Slaughter” fit in with the popular fiction of the era when it was published?

6. How would you characterize Sergeant Noonan’s behavior toward Mary in “Lamb to Slaughter”?

7. What crucial information to the story is omitted? Why do you think the author omitted these details?

8. How is the theme of passivity in “Lamb to the Slaughter” illustrated through Patrick’s character?

9. What appear to be Patrick’s motivations and desires in “Lamb to Slaughter”?

10. How does the author establish and develop tension through using sound in the beginning of the story?

(see the answer keys)

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