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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 woke the narrator in the night at the start of the story?
(a) A creaking sound in her house.
(b) The phone ringing.
(c) Her husband.
(d) A rainstorm.

2. What were the Chopi and Tsonga people the narrator says may have made the wooden instrument she describes when discussing her heart beating?
(a) Migrant miners.
(b) Farmers.
(c) Burglars.
(d) Musicians.

3. What pets does the family in the narrator's story have at home?
(a) Goldfish and a parakeet.
(b) A bird and a hamster.
(c) A cat and a dog.
(d) A monkey and a lemur.

4. What type of people are said to live in the city in the tale the narrator tells herself?
(a) Artistic people.
(b) People of another color.
(c) Religious people.
(d) People of a higher caste.

5. What adjective is used to describe the housemaid in the narrator's tale?
(a) Trustworthy.
(b) Itinerant.
(c) Loquacious.
(d) Eccentric.

Short Answer Questions

1. How was the plaque meant to indicate that the property owner was not racist?

2. What does the narrator realize is the reason for the creaking sound in her house?

3. What is it said the house and swimming pool and car could not be insured against?

4. Who is said to have offered a warning to the man and woman when they started their life together?

5. According to the narrator's tale, who were being shot by the police in the city?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator realize is the cause of the creaking she hears in her home at the start of the story?

2. After the riots outside the city subsided, what crimes took place in the suburbs?

3. Describe the sign the man and woman received from the Neighborhood watch. How was it supposed to "prove the property owner was no racist" (25)?

4. Why is the narrator unable to sleep at the start of the story?

5. What recent crimes does the narrator describe at the start of the story?

6. Where does the story the narrator tells herself take palce and who is in the story?

7. What precautions do the man and woman take against theft or natural disasters when they first move in to their home together?

8. What does the narrator do when she is an able to fall back to sleep at the start of the story?

9. What were the man and woman unable to insure their house against, and why did the man tell his wife they need not worry about that?

10. Despite having the same fears of intruders as other people, what precautions does the narrator say she does not take in her home?

(see the answer keys)

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