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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Bradbury say is like "an altar with ten-thousand attendants"?

2. 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?

3. In the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains," the plum trees are in "tremulous" white. Readers can infer that this refers to what?

4. What is the image of the west wall meant to allude to?

5. To what does Bradbury compare folding tables?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Bradbury use the dates on which the story takes place as a form of foreshadowing?

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

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

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

6. What is the purpose of ending the story with the house fire? Why not just end it with the reading of the Teasdale poem?

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

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

9. Explain what evidence there is that the house deliberately causes the dog's death.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Bradbury uses details in his story that create a portrait of a comfortable, middle-class family of the mid-twentieth century. Bridge, cigars, egg-salad, martinis, and surprisingly large breakfasts all help create this picture. Of course, these details are less relevant to today's audience. If you were rewriting "There Will Come Soft Rains" for today's audiences and wanted to include details that would immediately tell the reader "This is a middle-class family that likes its creature comforts," what details would you include, and why?

Essay Topic 2

Explain which details in "There Will Come Soft Rains" are explicitly taken from the history surrounding the dropping of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Offer a thesis about what these details are meant to accomplish and argue whether this is a successful strategy.

Essay Topic 3

Bradbury chooses Picasso and Matisse paintings to stand in for the idea of human cultural achievement. In what way does this choice reveal something about Bradbury's background? Write a two-paragraph essay in which you explore both Bradbury's choice and how alternate choices might more fully speak of "human cultural achievement."

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