The Veldt Test

​Key Elements of a Literary Text

• Setting

• Plot

• Characterization

• Conflict

• Point of View

• Theme

• Tone

We must have a solid understanding of these foundational elements of fiction in order to understand how they add layers of meaning or style to the text.

​We are going to read a second Ray Bradbury story, "The Veldt" in Actively Learn. This is a longer text, with 15 multiple choice questions.

​Work Period

Multiple Choice

Which one of the following is NOT an example of foreshadowing in the story?

• "They almost got us!" Lydia says when the lions run towards them at the beginning of the story.
• At dinner they ate alone, for Wendy and Peter were at a special plastic carnival.
• "What is that?" Lydia asked.  "An old wallet of mine . . . there were drops of saliva on it. . ."
• "Those screams- they sound familiar."

Multiple Choice

Now the hidden odorophonics were beginning to blow a wind of odor at the two people in the middle of the baked veldt-land. The hot straw smell of lion grass, the cool green smell of the hidden water hole, the great rusty smell of animals, the smell of dust like a red paprika in the hot air.

What does odorophonics mean? Use the context clues in the story to answer.

• a device that transports people to different locations.

• a device to test your sense of smell.

• a device that can produce real smells

• a device that creates optical illusions.

Multiple Choice

What can be inferred by the following line from the end of the story?  "And suddenly they realized why those other screams had sounded familiar."

• They heard the screams of the children

• They heard the scream of vultures

• They heard the lions dying in the virtual world

• They heard their own screams

Multiple Choice

Remarkable how the nursery caught the telepathic emanations of the children's minds and created life to fill their every desire. The children thought lions and there were lions.

What do the words telepathic emanations mean?

• sympathetic situations

• children's thoughts

• angry ideas from children

• ideas that can discourage people

Multiple Choice

Which of the following literary devices is being used in this quote, "... he opened this door and found Wonderland, Alice, the Mock Turtle, or Aladdin and his Magical Lamp..."

• Allusion
• Foreshadowing
• Simile
• Theme

Multiple Choice

"I don't know anything", he said, "except that I'm beginning to be sorry that we bought that room for the children. If children are neurotic at all, a room like that----"

What does the word neurotic mean?

• having a hard time

• having a feeling of being homesick

• having trouble telling what is real or not real

• having a nerve disease

Multiple Choice

When the parents ask Peter and Wendy why the nursery is stuck in Africa, the children say, "There's no Africa in the nursery."  Then, Wendy runs to the nursery, and comes back declaring there is no Africa scene in the nursery.  Based on the fact that the parents saw Africa earlier, what can be inferred about the children's answer?

• The nursery is broken and no one knows it.
• The children are lying, and Wendy ran ahead to change the room scene.
• The parents are causing Africa to show on the walls.
• Peter is innocent. Wendy is to blame for the scene of Africa.

Multiple Choice

"On you and your sister. If you intersperse this Africa with a little variety--oh, Sweden perhaps, or Denmark or China---"

What does the word intersperse mean?

• remaining the same

• being too stubborn to change

• adding variety

• being well-traveled

Multiple Choice

Which one of the following DOES NOT contain a message the author wanted to teach in this story?

• Spoiled children can be violent.
• The children of the future should be allowed to create without restrictions.
• Humans should not allow technology to control them.
• Parents must have and maintain rules for their children.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following literary devices is being used in this quote? "'I don't imagine the room will like being turned off.'"

• Imagery
• Personification
• Allusion
• Simile

Multiple Choice

Why did Ray Bradbury use vultures in the story?

• He couldn't find a blue bird

• The vultures symbolize death

• The vultures represent happiness

• Bluebirds symbolize bad luck

Multiple Choice

What is the central message presented in this story?

• Too much technology can come with heavy consequences
• Parents needs to be more loving towards their children
• Raising a well behaved child is very hard work
• The future generations are doomed