46 pages 1 hour read

James Thurber

The Night the Ghost Got In

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1933

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Exam Questions

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

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following words best describes the tone of the narration?

A) Instructional

B) Pejorative

C) Familiar

D) Critical

2. Which of the following words best describes mother?

A) Cautious

B) Greedy

C) Considerate

D) Reactive

3. Which of the following best identifies the source of paranoia throughout the narrative?

A) The social effects of war

B) The possibility of an economic recession

C) The fear of a right-wing government

D) The concern for the suffrage movement

4. How do the family members react to the possibility of a burglar in the house?

A) They begin to investigate.

B) They become frenzied.

C) They slowly grow worried.

D) They anticipate an amusing performance.

5. Which literary device is expressed in the police officer’s observation that “[t]his guy…was nekked. The lady seems historical”? (Paragraph 11)  

A) Metonymy

B) Metaphor

C) Melodrama

D) Malapropism

6. Which of the following represents the absurd reality of the Thurber household?

A) The zither

B) The ghost

C) The bathroom light

D) The officer’s gun

7. What finally convinces the police officers to leave?

A) Grandfather shoots one of them.

B) They realize the family is harmless.

C) The narrator mentions the ghost.

D) The wounded officer finds his gun.

8. What makes mother’s description of the burglars implausible?

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