1. Which is the best descriptor of the mood of the scene in the study, where the poem is read and music plays as a cigar slowly burns down to ash?
(a) Frantic and chaotic.
(b) Amusing and nostalgic.
(c) Haunting and ironic.
(d) Tragic and melodramatic.

2. Just before the house collapses, what does it do?
(a) It begins performing multiple functions over and over.
(b) It announces the wrong date and time.
(c) It shuts down entirely except for its "voice" function.
(d) It dumps out all of the liquor, coffee, and milk in one last attempt to fight the fire.

3. What is thematically important about the cause of the fire in the kitchen?
(a) The fire is started when one of the cleaning mice knocks over a cleaning product.
(b) The fire is started by the family dog.
(c) The fire is started when the house's elaborate machinery begins to break down.
(d) The fire is started when the natural world intrudes into the house.

4. The line "And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn," contains an example of which technique?
(a) Paradox.
(b) Oxymoron.
(c) Metaphor.
(d) Personification.

5. What is the likely purpose of inserting the house's "dialogue" ("Help, help! Fire! Run, run!") into the scene that describes the fire consuming the house?
(a) It clarifies the order in which the house is burning, because the house can still "speak."
(b) It reminds the reader that the house is a living thing.
(c) It reinforces how helpless and pointless the technology is in the face of nature's power.
(d) It reminds the reader of the death of the family.