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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. During the fire, what does Bradbury compare the house's dialogue to?
(a) A nursery rhyme.
(b) A person's last words.
(c) The epilogue of a play.
(d) The poem "There Will Come Soft Rains."

2. What is the name of the family that owned the house?
(a) Longfellow.
(b) McClellan.
(c) Fitzpatrick.
(d) Arthur.

3. What is unusual about the images of the African animals?
(a) Their faces.
(b) Their sizes.
(c) Their colors.
(d) Their shapes.

4. What happens at ten o'clock?
(a) The sun comes out.
(b) The kitchen begins to make a second breakfast.
(c) A stray animal wanders through the kitchen.
(d) The robot mice go back to their burrows.

5. What is the image of the west wall meant to allude to?
(a) The Biblical flood.
(b) Similar silhouettes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(c) A recent riot in Los Angeles.
(d) An asteroid strike.

6. Why does the house let the dog in?
(a) It recognizes the dog.
(b) It is programmed to let in any dog or cat.
(c) It is an accident.
(d) It wants the dog to find the family.

7. What happens at ten-fifteen?
(a) The nursery walls come to life.
(b) The sprinklers begin watering the lawn.
(c) The house shuts itself down.
(d) A window breaks.

8. Who is the author of the poem that the house reads after dinner?
(a) Thomas.
(b) Bradbury.
(c) Teasdale.
(d) Longfellow.

9. Why do the robot mice come out when they do?
(a) They are programmed to come out at nine-fifteen.
(b) They mistake the noise of the rain for an intruder.
(c) They are looking for the family.
(d) There is food spilled near the table.

10. When the story ends, what is left standing?
(a) A tree.
(b) A distant building.
(c) Nothing.
(d) One wall of the house.

11. What does the dog do once it gets inside the house?
(a) It begins eating the spoiled food.
(b) It falls asleep in the nursery.
(c) It looks through the house for the family's other dog.
(d) It barks at every door.

12. What does the house provide after dinner?
(a) A warm bath.
(b) Games and snacks.
(c) Music and hot chocolate.
(d) A fire and a cigar.

13. Bradbury mentions that martinis "manifested" on tables. What did the martinis do?
(a) Spilled.
(b) Sparkled.
(c) Appeared.
(d) Evaporated.

14. To what does the phrase "the children's hour" allude?
(a) A fairy tale.
(b) A nursery rhyme.
(c) A poem by Longfellow.
(d) A poem by Teasdale.

15. 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) Haunting and ironic.
(b) Frantic and chaotic.
(c) Amusing and nostalgic.
(d) Tragic and melodramatic.

Short Answer Questions

1. The use of sentence fragments in the description of the spreading fire is probably intended to create what effect?

2. What does Bradbury say that the house is angry about when the dog shows up?

3. What historical event is alluded to with the date given in the beginning of the story?

4. What causes the house to temporarily "give up" as the fire spreads?

5. When the windows break and the wind makes the fire grow and spread, which thematic motif is reinforced?

(see the answer keys)

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