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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 job of the robot mice?
(a) Entertaining the children.
(b) Alerting the house to intruders.
(c) Entertaining the dog.
(d) Cleaning.

2. What is the house compared to as it burns to the ground?
(a) A bonfire.
(b) A bomb.
(c) A cigar.
(d) A skeleton.

3. 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.

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

5. What does the garage do when no one drives the car away?
(a) Announces again that it is time to go to work and to school.
(b) Waits and then closes again.
(c) Starts the car remotely.
(d) Uses the car horn to alert the family.

Short Answer Questions

1. When the fire travels outside and up the sides of the house, it is described as what?

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

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

4. In the section about the nursery, Bradbury mentions the "sprockets" in the walls. What are "sprockets"?

5. Just before the house collapses, what does it do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the purpose of the story's allusion to Longfellow's poem "The Children's Hour."

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

3. The garbage disposal in the kitchen is referred to as a "metal throat." What techniques are at use here, and what is their purpose?

4. Explain the allusion to Odysseus's dog and how it functions in the story.

5. What is the meaning of the silhouettes on the side of the house?

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

7. How do the cleaning mice allude to Cinderella, and what is the purpose of this allusion?

8. 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.

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. Explain the significance of the nursery decor.

(see the answer keys)

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