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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What allusion is present in the weather box's announcement of the rain?
(a) There is a reference to a very old folk tune, often sung by children.
(b) There is a reference to a famous Dutch painting.
(c) There is a reference to a popular book of Bradbury's time.
(d) There is a reference to a Greek myth about rain and death.

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

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

4. To what story do the robot mice allude?
(a) Little Red Riding Hood.
(b) Beauty and the Beast.
(c) Snow White.
(d) Cinderella.

5. On what date does the story begin?
(a) August 6.
(b) April 4.
(c) April 6.
(d) August 4.

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

7. From two thirty-five to four o'clock, what can readers infer that the family would ordinarily be doing?
(a) Cleaning.
(b) They would still be at work and school.
(c) Having friends over to eat and listen to the radio.
(d) Playing cards and having a snack.

8. What does Bradbury say is like "an altar with ten-thousand attendants"?
(a) The yard.
(b) The house.
(c) The incinerator.
(d) The city.

9. The use of sentence fragments in the description of the spreading fire is probably intended to create what effect?
(a) Apathy and resignation.
(b) Confusion and doubt.
(c) Distance and irony.
(d) Chaos and speed.

10. What is strange about how the nursery reacts to the fire?
(a) The nursery is the only room that does not turn on its sprinklers.
(b) The nursery deliberately opens its windows during the fire.
(c) The animal images seem to be aware of the fire.
(d) The voice in the nursery walls begins singing an old children's song.

11. Where are the "aluminium roaches and iron crickets"?
(a) In the walls.
(b) In the nursery.
(c) In the yard.
(d) In the garage.

12. "Mr. Featherstone" is an example of what literary technique?
(a) Oxymoron.
(b) Kenning.
(c) Epithet.
(d) Paradox.

13. What historical event is alluded to with the date given in the beginning of the story?
(a) The bombing of Hiroshima.
(b) The beginning of World War II.
(c) The first testing of a nuclear bomb.
(d) The beginning of the Cold War.

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

15. "Seven-nine, breakfast time" is an example of which rhyming technique?
(a) Slant rhyme.
(b) End rhyme.
(c) Identical rhyme.
(d) Eye rhyme.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of the family that owned the house?

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

3. What causes the fire to eventually win the battle with the house?

4. At one point, Bradbury says that the house has a "preoccupation" with self-protection. What must be true about the house?

5. Why do the robot mice come out when they do?

(see the answer keys)

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