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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The sounds of the alarms in the suburban neighborhood were likened to which creatures?
(a) Blackbirds and crickets.
(b) Bees and grasshoppers.
(c) Frogs and cicadas.
(d) Mosquitoes and bluejays.

2. Why did the wife suggest they build a higher wall around their house?
(a) She wanted it to block out the sun.
(b) She worried her son would climb over their current wall.
(c) She wanted their wall higher than their neighbors.
(d) Her husband suggested that someone might still be able to climb in.

3. What additional security option does the husband and wife choose after comparing various styles in the neighborhood?
(a) Serrated metal coils.
(b) 12-inch pikes.
(c) Iron grilles with lance-points.
(d) Glass embedded in cement.

4. Why did people in the city begin spending time in the suburbs even if they were not housemaids or gardeners?
(a) Their kids were bussed there for school.
(b) They were waiting for families to leave so they could rob them.
(c) They were looking for work.
(d) They had friends in the suburbs.

5. What words are used to describe the sounds the alarms in the suburban neighborhood made?
(a) Shrills, beats, and wails.
(b) Jingle jangles.
(c) Beeps, honks, and toots.
(d) Bangs and booms.

6. What did the husband tell his wife she was doing by giving things to the city people who came to the suburbs?
(a) Embarrassing him.
(b) Wasting their money.
(c) Helping them.
(d) Encouraging them.

7. What does the boy pretend the serrated metal coils are at the end of the story?
(a) A ladder.
(b) A thicket of thorns.
(c) A xylophone.
(d) A secret fortress.

8. What sounds collided with the screams at the end of the story?
(a) The neighbor's shouts.
(b) The cat's wail.
(c) The dog's bark.
(d) The alarm.

9. Why did owners of suburban homes particularly mourn when the intruders drank their single malt scotch?
(a) It was too expensive to replace.
(b) They felt the intruders were unable to appreciate what they were drinking.
(c) They did not make that kind anymore.
(d) They usually saved it for a special occasion.

10. Who runs out of the house second and finds the boy at the end of the story?
(a) The man and the woman.
(b) The wise old witch.
(c) The housemaid and gardener.
(d) The cat.

11. In addition to taken items from homes, what did the suburban intruders do in the homes?
(a) Read.
(b) Ate and drank.
(c) Had parties.
(d) Napped.

12. What is described as the "low-cost option" neighbors used to secure their homes?
(a) Broken glass embedded in cement on the tops of walls.
(b) Setting booby traps.
(c) Getting stickers with security company's names on them.
(d) Getting guard dogs.

13. Who is the first to find the boy at the end of the story?
(a) The wise old witch.
(b) The housemaid and the gardener.
(c) The cat.
(d) The man and the woman.

14. How is the housemaid described at the end of the story as she walks back to the house?
(a) Speechless.
(b) Hysterical.
(c) Hopeless.
(d) Melancholy.

15. What is it said would happen if someone tried to get through the tunnel of the security fence the man and woman installed?
(a) They would get electrocuted.
(b) They would get entangled in its fangs.
(c) The alarm would go off.
(d) They would get suffocated.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are some of the things intruders would take from suburban homes?

2. What is said to have happened in one family's home while the family was at dinner?

3. At the end of the story, what is the coil tunnel said to be "just wide enough for" (30)?

4. What does the mother do to get the boy to sleep at the end of the story?

5. How are the coils the man and woman have installed around their wall described when the workmen are putting them in?

(see the answer keys)

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