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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 is the probable purpose of emphasizing the roundness of the smoke plume and the great quantity of smoke?
(a) It reinforces the "technology versus nature" motif.
(b) There is an implied comparison to a woman's skirts.
(c) It reminds the reader of a nuclear explosion.
(d) It points out how little chance the house really had.

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

3. What effect is the constant repetition and rhyming of the voice-clock probably meant to have?
(a) It reinforces the similarity of everything that the voice clock says.
(b) It echos the language of fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
(c) It stresses the forgetfulness of the family.
(d) It demonstrates a positive attitude toward technology.

4. To what does Bradbury compare folding tables?
(a) Books.
(b) Butterflies.
(c) Folded hands.
(d) Oysters,

5. When the windows break and the wind makes the fire grow and spread, which thematic motif is reinforced?
(a) The house is evil.
(b) The house is a part of nature.
(c) Technology can be dangerous.
(d) Nature and the house are in opposition.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what famous dog is this dog an allusion?

2. Why does the dog want to get into the kitchen so badly?

3. What does the breakfast stove make for breakfast?

4. 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?

5. Which is the best summary of how the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" compares to the short story of the same name?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain how the pun in the line "The morning house lay empty" explains why the house is empty and foreshadows the story's later revelation of the family's fate.

2. Describe the image that ends the story and explain its significance.

3. Explain the inclusion of the Sara Teasdale poem in this story.

4. Explain what is ironic about the rain in the nursery scenery.

5. What is ironic about Bradbury's use of rain in this story?

6. What is the difference between the focus of Teasdale's poem and the focus of Bradbury's short story?

7. In what way is the house's "speech" like nursery rhymes, and what is the purpose of this choice?

8. What is suggested by the fact that the house repeats the date "three times for memory's sake"?

9. What is the intended effect of juxtaposing the images of the silhouettes with the description of the house's continued paranoia about intruders?

10. What is the likely purpose of including mechanical creatures such as rats and roaches?

(see the answer keys)

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