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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 the narrator stare at in her bed as she listens to the sounds in her house?
(a) The floor.
(b) Her gun.
(c) Her reflection in the mirror.
(d) The door.

2. After the incident with a neighbor's housemaid, what did the man and woman's housemaid beg them to do?
(a) Install burglar bars and an alarm system.
(b) Move to the country.
(c) Give her a raise.
(d) Get a gun.

3. What does the husband do to assuage his wife's fears that people from the city might intrude on their home in the suburbs?
(a) He buys her a gun.
(b) He adds padlocks to their doors.
(c) He buys them a house in the country.
(d) He has electronically-controlled gates installed.

4. What begins to happen once the riots in the city are suppressed?
(a) People in the city move to the suburbs.
(b) Burglaries in the suburbs increase.
(c) People in the suburbs become less fearful.
(d) People in the suburbs move to the city.

5. What reason does the narrator give for the casual laborer murdering an old widower?
(a) The widower would not give the laborer a raise.
(b) The laborer wanted the old man's antique clocks.
(c) The laborer was dismissed without pay.
(d) The old man was a callous employer.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the man tell his wife to ease her fears the people from the city will come to their house in the suburbs?

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

3. What adjective is used to describe the gardener in the narrator's tale?

4. Where were the riots said to be in the tale the narrator tells herself?

5. Why did the neighborhood alarms often go unanswered after many had them installed?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the husband try to assuage his wife's fears when she worries people from the cities will tear off their warning sign and "open the gates and stream in" (26).

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

3. What fears did the man and woman's trusted housemaid begin to have, and what did they do in response to her fears?

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

5. At the start of "Once Upon a Time," what does the narrator say someone wrote and asked her to do, and how does she feel about this request?

6. 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?

7. 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)?

8. How is the man's mother described and what warning did she give her son and his wife as they start their life together?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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