There Will Come Soft Rains

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for story review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following literary devices is most clearly exemplified in this line from Paragraph 10?

“The sun came out from behind the rain. The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes.”

A) Metaphor

B) Simile

C) Juxtaposition

D) Hyperbole

2. Which of the following scenarios best demonstrates the house’s contribution to the theme of Order and Chaos?

A) The house cleaning up despite no one living there

B) The house scaring off a bird to preserve its cleanliness

C) The house letting the dog enter

D) The house reading a poem

3. Which of the following beliefs is most strongly suggested by the inclusion of the poem “There Will Come Soft Rains”?

A) Nature doesn’t care what happens to humanity.

B) Nature and humanity should live in harmony.

C) Nature should submit to humanity.

D) Nature would be more peaceful without humans and humanity’s wars.

4. Which of the following concepts is most clearly symbolized by the house keeping out animals, except for the family dog?

A) Humanity’s inability to coexist with nature

B) Humanity’s hatred of nature

C) Humanity’s desire for order

D) Humanity’s reliance on technology

5. Which of the following scenarios best demonstrates the theme of The Limits of Scientific Progress?

A) The house preparing food just to throw it out

B) The house letting the dog enter

C) The house burning down despite its attempts to control the fire.

D) The house believing the family is alive

6. Which type of figurative language is most strongly exemplified in this line from Paragraph 54?

“Now the fire lay in beds, stood in windows, changed the colors of drapes!”

A) Imagery

B) Personification

C) Metaphor

D) Onomatopoeia

7. Which of the following best embodies the fear of atomic weapons that was common at the time Bradbury wrote the story?

A) The silhouettes of the dead family

B) The house burning down

C) The house being unable to keep nature out

D) The city being rubble

8. Which type of figurative language is employed in this passage from Paragraph 60?

“Fire, fire, run, run, like a tragic nursery rhyme, a dozen voices, high, low, like children dying in a forest, alone, alone. And the voices fading as the wires popped their sheathings like hot chestnuts. One, two, three, four, five voices died.”  

A) Personification

B) Hyperbole

C) Imagery

D) Simile

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. How does the absence of human characters impact the story?