Pit and Pendulum

Why does the protagonist think he will be subjected to a new torture device after he frees himself from the knots?

• He knows he is guilty.

• His captors informed him of this.

• He figures he won't be let off so easily.

• He sees the next torture device in the pit.

The narrator in "The Pit and the Pendulum" examines his surroundings by

• lighting a match so that he can see

• feeling his way around the cell

• running around the chamber

• yelling to hear echoes

In "The Pit and the Pendulum," why do the torturers put out food and water when the narrator first succumbs to fatigue?

• to poison the narrator

• to prolong the torture

• to elicit a confession

• to comply with the law

How does the narrator free himself from his bindings?

• waits until the pendulum cuts the bonds and quickly rolls out of the way

• screams and screams until they release him

• pays a great deal of money and is released

• smears meat on the bonds that hold him, and the rats chew through them

Choose the best paraphrase for the following sentence: "The sentence-the dread sentence of death-was the last distinct accentuation which reached my ears."

• My death sentence was the last thing I heard clearly.

• I distinctly heard a sentence with the word death in it.

• My torturers wanted to pronounce a death sentence.

• Prisoners rarely heard about their own death sentences.

How does Poe's style help you understand the meaning of the following sentence: "Inch by inch-line by line-with a descent only appreciable at intervals that seemed ages-down and still down it came!"

• Grotesque images convey the horror of the narrator's situation.

• Unusual word choices cause confusion about what is happening.

• The first-person point of view conceals the torturers' plan.

• Repeated words add to the narrator's sense of desperation.

Choose the best paraphrase for the following sentence: "The surcingle enveloped my limbs and body close in all directions-save in the path of the destroying crescent."

• The bindings wrapped only the part of my body where the pendulum would swing.

• The bindings wrapped my entire body tightly except where the pendulum would swing.

• The pendulum is going to hit my body after it cuts through the bindings.

• The pendulum would swing through the wrappings that covered my body.

At the end of the story, the

• narrator plunges to his death in the pit

• inquisitors release him because he is really innocent

• narrator is saved from the pit by a French general

• prison burns, and in the turmoil the prisoner is able to escape

What is the primary theme of 'The Pit and the Pendulum'?

• A) The inevitability of death

• B) The struggle for freedom

• C) The power of hope

• D) The cruelty of time

Which literary device is predominantly used in 'The Pit and the Pendulum' to create suspense?

• A) Metaphor

• B) Foreshadowing

• C) Imagery

• D) Irony