"The Tell-Tale Heart" Selection Test

Situational irony is when a character or the reader expects one thing, but something very different happens or is true. Dramatic irony is when the reader knows something that a character does not know.

Which two are examples of irony in the story?

• The narrator’s attempts to hide the murder actually result in him giving himself up to the police.

• The narrator chooses to commit the murder in the middle of the night, when the old man is asleep.

• The more the narrator insists that he is not mad, the more readers can detect evidence of his madness.

• The narrator admits that he liked, even loved, the old man, and that he only objected to his pale, filmy eye.

• The neighbor hears the old man shriek and summons the police out of concern for his safety.

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Foreshadowing occurs when a writer provides hints that suggest future events in a story, and it can help create suspense.

How does the narrator’s mention of his acute hearing in paragraph 1 foreshadow the old man’s death?

• It foreshadows the point when the old man’s heartbeat drives the narrator to kill him.

• It foreshadows his ability to hear the police coming when they respond to the old man’s murder.

• It foreshadows his decision to murder the old man because he was tired of listening to him.

• It foreshadows the moment when the old man hears the narrator at the door and wakes up.

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In paragraph 2, the word conceived means to —

• become pregnant with a child

• have an opinion on an issue

• form a plan in the mind

• imagine something abstract

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In paragraph 4, the narrator describes visiting the old man every night at midnight. Why is he unable to commit the murder for the first seven nights?

• The old man is a restless sleeper, so the narrator cannot sneak in.

• The narrator does not have enough light from the lantern to commit the murder.

• He is trying to be kind by giving the old man a few more days to live.

• He cannot see the old man’s eye, which is what he feels he needs to kill.

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Which choice best expresses the main idea of paragraph 8?

• The old man stirs and cries out when he hears the narrator at the door and scares the narrator away.

• The narrator can relate to the old man’s fear, but that only makes the narrator feel more powerful.

• The narrator chooses to wake the old man so that he can face him directly for the murder.

• The narrator slips into the room when the old man wakes, hoping that the old man will not see him.

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In paragraphs 14–15, the narrator describes his cleanup and first encounter with the police with a tone of —

• anxiety

• melancholy

• confidence

• indifference

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Which word from paragraph 18 is closest to meaning contempt?

• agony

• derision

• swore

• hypocritical

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Poe’s extensive use of dashes in the last two paragraphs is effective because it —

• highlights the narrator’s increased sense of nervousness

• slows down the story so that it is easier to understand

• suggests that the police know more than they are letting on

• allows the readers to understand the narrator’s motives

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The use of a first-person narrator in the story —

• allows readers to understand each character’s point of view

• helps to explain how the characters are related to each other

• gives readers insight into the narrator’s mental instability

• illustrates how the old man treats the narrator every day

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Choose the two lines from the story that best support the following idea:

The narrator cannot escape his guilty conscience.

• I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observation of men—but the noise steadily increased.

• Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.

• . . . . I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work. . . . .

• . . . . I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness— until at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears.

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