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

2. Mary is said to watch Patrick as he relates his statement “with a kind of dazed” what?
(a) Amazement
(b) Shock
(c) Horror
(d) Relief

3. Mary overhears the police detective telling another that the store clerk said Mary’s behavior was what?
(a) Quite normal
(b) Overly giddy
(c) Slightly paranoid
(d) Very strange

4. Patrick tells Mary after relating his story that “there needn’t really be any” what?
(a) Agony
(b) Hatred
(c) Yelling
(d) Fuss

5. How are Mary’s eyes described in the story?
(a) Large
(b) Slanted
(c) Small
(d) Beady

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a literary technique used to develop suspense in “Lamb to the Slaughter”?

2. Where is Patrick standing when Mary reenters the living room with the meat from the freezer?

3. As Mary, in the living room, listens to the policemen in the kitchen, their voices are described as being what “because their mouths were full of meat”?

4. Patrick tells Mary that what he has to say will be what to her in “Lamb to the Slaughter”?

5. How is Patrick said to travel in relation to Mary as he relates his story in “Lamb to the Slaughter”?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author portray women and men differently in “Lamb to the Slaughter”?

2. How is Mary’s love for Patrick indicated through imagery in the story?

3. What transitions did American culture (and European culture) and society make in the 1950s?

4. What role does Sergeant Noonan play in the ultimate plot twist of “Lamb to the Slaughter”?

5. Whose point of view does the narrative of “Lamb to Slaughter” revolve around?

6. Where does the rising action take place in the narrative? What happens in the rising action of the story?

7. What influences can be seen in “Lamb to Slaughter”? When in Dahl’s career was the story written?

8. How is Biblical allusion depicted through the title of “Lamb to Slaughter”?

9. What conversation between Mary and Sergeant Noonan leads to the destruction of the evidence in “Lamb to Slaughter”?

10. Whom does Mary call after “discovering” the body? What happens next in the story?

(see the answer keys)

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